Polanski sex assault victim asks judge to end 40-year-old case
Roman Polanski’s sexual assault victim asked a judge yesterday to end the 40-yearold case against the fugitive director, but there was no indication her plea would bring an end to the lengthy court saga.
Samantha Geimer told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon that she wanted the case to end, either with an outright dismissal or by the judge sentencing Polanski without him being present.
Polanski’s repeated requests for the same rulings have been denied. Judge Gordon said he would take Ms Geimer’s comments into consideration and did not issue an immediate ruling.
Ms Geimer spoke briefly with reporters before the hearing, telling them she was terrified but felt compelled to tell a judge directly that she wanted the case to end.
“This may be my last chance,” she said. “I finally will get to stand before a judge and say how I feel so I thought I should take it.”
Ms Geimer, 54, has long supported Polanski’s efforts to end the legal saga that limits his freedom, but yesterday was the first time she’s appeared in court on his behalf, attorney Harland Braun said.
“She’s tired of this case,” Mr Braun said on Thursday. “The judge is just playing games with him.”
The Oscar-winner has been a fugitive since he fled to France in 1978 on the eve of sentencing for having unlawful sex with a minor. Prosecutors dropped charges that he drugged, raped and sodomised Ms Geimer when she was 13-years-old. Polanski feared the judge was going to renege on a plea agreement and send him away for more time than the six weeks he served in prison during a psychiatric evaluation prior to sentencing.
His lawyers have been fighting for years to end the case and lift an international arrest warrant that confined him to his native France, Switzerland and Poland, where he fled the Holocaust.
The warrant prevented Polanski from collecting his Academy Award for best director for his 2002 film The Pianist. He was also nominated for 1974’s Chinatown and 1979’s Tess.
Polanski, 83, is trying to get the Interpol warrant lifted so he can move freely among most of the 190 countries in the global policing network.
If that happened, the California warrant would remain valid.
He contends he is the victim of judicial misconduct because the now-deceased judge who handled the case suggested in private remarks that he would not honour a plea agreement.