Case accusing ‘The Pianist’ director Polanski of sexually assaulting minor dismissed

Award-winning Jewish director fled US after separate case in which he admitted to sexual relations with minor; recently settled case related to alleged incident in 1973

By AFP 23 October 2024, 7:58 am

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Roman Polanski arrives on the red carpet of the 45th Deauville US Film Festival, on September 7, 2019, in Deauville, northern France. (Loic Venance/AFP)

LOS ANGELES — French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged assault of another minor after reaching a settlement, his lawyer said Tuesday.

“The Pianist” director’s latest case, which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August, but has now been withdrawn, Polanski’s US attorney told AFP.

The case was “settled in the summer to the parties’ mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed,” Alexander Rufus-Isaacs said in an email.

The suit, filed last year, claimed Polanski took a then-teenager — named anonymously in filings as Jane Doe — to dinner at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 1973.

He allegedly gave her tequila, and when she began to feel dizzy, drove her to his home, where he forced himself on her.

“She told him: ‘Please don’t do this,'” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told reporters in March.

Demonstrators hold banners during a protest against French-Polish film director Roman Polanski outside the “Champo” cinema hall in Paris on November 12, 2019. (Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

“She alleges that he ignored her pleas. She also alleges that defendant Polanski removed plaintiff’s clothes and he proceeded to sexually assault her, causing her tremendous physical, emotional pain and suffering.”

The civil suit, which sought unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, just before the expiration of a California law that allowed for an extended window for claims against the alleged perpetrators of sexual crimes.

Court papers filed in California in July said a “conditional” accord had been reached.

Allred said in an email late Tuesday that “a settlement of claims was agreed to by the parties to their mutual satisfaction.”

Oscar-winner Polanski, now 91, is a divisive figure, with some in the movie world hailing his creative genius, while others focusing on allegation that he was always a sexual predator.

Polanski admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 to avoid a trial on more serious charges.

But he fled to France the following year, after serving 42 days in jail, when it appeared a judge was reconsidering his release.

Geimer has subsequently defended Polanski and was photographed with him last year.

A French court in May acquitted Polanski of defaming British actor Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.

The director has always denied wrongdoing.