Roman Polanski Victim "Surprised and Disappointed" by Court's Refusal to Dismiss

Woman who had sex with Polanski when she was 13 says she's a victim all over again because D.A. won't dismiss the case

By Natalie Finn Jan 13, 2009 2:01 AMTags
Roman PolanskiAP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar

The woman whom Roman Polanksi was convicted of having sex with when she was a mere 13 years old is "absolutely clear" about one thing.

She thinks the 30-year-old statuatory rape charge against the Oscar-winning filmmaker should be dismissed.

"Surprised and disappointed" that the Los Angeles Superior Court system has not heeded Polanski's bid to have the charge of having unlawful intercourse with a minor dismissed, 45-year-old Samantha Geimer feels like a victim all over again, according to a four-page declaration filed Monday.

"I have urged that this matter come to a formal legal end," Geimer stated. "I have urged that the district attorney and the court dismiss these charges."

The prosecution's refusal to dismiss the charge against Polanski, who has been living in self-exile in Europe since 1978, when he fled the U.S. out of fear of being sentenced to jail time for his crime, has "given great publicity to the lurid details of those events, for all to read, again," she continued.

"True as they may be, the continued publication of those details causes harm to me, my beloved husband, my three children and my mother. I have become a victim of the actions of the district attorney. My position is absolutely clear. 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.

"My views as a victim, my feelings as a victim, or my desires as a victim were never considered or even inquired into by the district attorney prior to the filing," Geimer said. "It is clear to me that because the district attorney's office has been accused of wrongdoing, it has recited the lurid details of the case to distract attention from the wrongful conduct of the district attorney's office as well as the judge who was then assigned to the case."

Geimer's current position echoes the one she took in an interview for the 2008 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which alleges that the L.A. District Attorney's Office had inappropriate communication with the judge overseeing Polanski's case back in 1977-78.

A hearing on Polanski's motion to dismiss the decades-old charge is scheduled for Jan. 21. 

In a counterfiling last month that graphically recounted the details of the 1977 sex case, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren contended that Polanski has "voluntarily remained a fugitive from justice" and is "not entitled to have the court entertain his motion" unless he returns to L.A. to face a judge.

On Friday, a judge rejected the Pianist director's request to have the case removed from L.A. Superior Court to the California Judicial Council because of this perceived bias among the court's judges.

In her declaration, Geimer called the stipulation that Polanski must appear in person "a joke, a cruel joke being played on me."

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