Polanski Rape Victim Urges Case Dismissal

By Chris Georg
14:33, January 13th 2009
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Polanski Rape Victim Urges Case Dismissal

It’s been three decades since acclaimed and controversial director Roman Polanski admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, who is now a grown up woman urging Los Angeles prosecutors to dismiss the charges and put the case to rest.

Claiming the Polanski case details published in the press are a constant reminder of her trauma over 30 years ago, Samantha Geimer insisted in a written declaration to the court that she wants the charges against Polanski dropped.

 “I was the 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski took advantage of on March 10, 1977,” Geimer, now a 45-year-old wife and mother-of-three, wrote. “I have urged that this matter come to a formal legal end. I have urged that the district attorney and the court dismiss these charges.”

She insisted that the continued publication of those details harmed her, her husband, their children and her mother adding that she feels like a victim of the actions of the Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren who last week filed a motion describing the incident in graphic detail in court papers for the first time.

Geimer said she believes that her feelings should have been taken into account before the legal papers were submitted.

For her own good, Geimer sided with Polanski’s lawyers in stating her position, “Let us deal with the harm and continued harm that the pendency of this matter visits upon me and my family, and waive the legal niceties away, and cause it to be dismissed.”

"I have survived, indeed prevailed, against whatever harm Mr. Polanski may have caused me as a child," she added.

There was no immediate response from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to Geimer's declaration.

Currently an established French citizen, Polanski fled the United States on the eve of sentencing, after pleading guilty to sexual misconduct. He has since made a life for himself in France where he was born and cannot be extradited. He has been married for nearly two decades to actress Emmanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children.

The moviemaker’s team of lawyers filed a motion in December 2008 requesting that the charges against their client be dismissed based on new evidence provided by an HBO documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” which aired in June. The same motion also argued that Polanski should not be required to return to the United States to appear in court for the dismissal motion to be considered.

Geimer, who has spoken publicly about the case before, including a 2003 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," already settled a civil case with Polanski 1997. In the HBO documentary following the trial, she revealed that at the time she was very young and “the judge didn’t care about me and he didn’t care about Polanski.”

In 1997, a new State Supreme Court judge told Polanski that he would not be imprisoned if he returned to the U.S. to end the case. However, the condition he imposed was that the trial be televised, to which the director predictably and cautiously reacted by declining.

Polanski's motion for dismissal is scheduled for a hearing on January 21.

 



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