Roman Polanski’s then-teenage victim from his 1977 unlawful sexual intercourse case made a rare appearance in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday and asked that the drawn-out criminal case against the fugitive Oscar-winning director come to an end.
“… I would implore you to consider taking action which can finally bring this matter to a close as an act of mercy to myself and my family,” Samantha Geimer told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon.
She told the judge she has “endured the pendency of this case for over 40 years” and said dismissal of the matter would be a “way to expedite a conclusion” to the case.
The judge said he would issue a written ruling on her request to dismiss the case, but it was unclear when it would be released.
“Your words mean a lot … Closure is something that you do deserve,” the judge told Geimer.
Geimer, who was 13 at the time and is now a grandmother, pleaded with the judge to consider that “now a fifth generation of my family may be unfairly burdened and resolve this matter without the spectacle of arresting and incarcerating an 83-year-old defendant for the benefit of the egos involved in this case.” She noted that she has suffered “insults and mistreatment” for 40 years.
She also suggested that Polanski could be sentenced without having to return to court — a suggestion that had already been rejected by the judge earlier this year.
Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee acknowledged that victims have a broad set of rights, but it does not include the right to dictate the outcome of a criminal case.
“We do object to the motion to dismiss,” the prosecutor told the judge.
Polanski’s attorney, Harland Braun, asked the judge to dismiss the case in the interests of justice, saying his 83-year-old client has accepted responsibility for his actions and had a “reasonable fear of our system.”
Braun has said he believes a transcript of closed-door testimony from former Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson will confirm a plea deal negotiated in 1978 calling for Polanski to be sentenced to time already served behind bars.
The defense lawyer has maintained that Polanski has already served more than enough time, including time he spent at a state prison in Chino in the late 1970s for a pre-sentencing diagnostic examination and also in jail and under house arrest in Switzerland in 2009 as Swiss authorities considered an extradition request.
The director, writer and producer, who won an Oscar in 2002 for “The Pianist” fled to his native France in 1978 before his sentencing and still lives in Europe. Southern California authorities have tried for years to bring him back to America.
Outside court, Geimer, now 54, told reporters it was the first opportunity she’s had to come to court and decided to “take it because I thought it might be my last.”
She said she believes Polanski has served his sentence and “done everything he needed to do.”
“I knew he was sorry. He got arrested. I knew he was sorry the next day. I was sure he instantly regretted what he had done and wished it hadn’t happened,” Geimer told reporters, noting that Polanski wrote her a note and apologized to her and her mother.
She said she has “empathy” for Polanski, noting that he is now facing the same type of insults she endured in the early days of the 1977 sex case, when she was 13 years old.
“Well, now he endures it because everyone calls him a pedophile and says terrible things about him which aren’t true. So the insults have switched, but I have empathy for the way he is treated because I was treated the same way when this first happened,” Geimer said.
Geimer also went along with the defense’s request for a transcript of Gunson’s closed-door testimony to be unsealed.
In a letter sent to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in April, Geimer accused prosecutors of treating her with “contempt” and “using a crime committed against me to further your own careers.”
“Celebrity cases should not be misused by those like yourselves for some limelight and career advancement. We have all heard that there is (a) special place in Hell for women who do not help other women. I hope it is true,” Geimer wrote in a letter to Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, the prosecutor assigned to Polanski’s case.
Geimer wrote in the letter that she is “outraged that you continue to cover up the misconduct that has occurred in this case, which began 40 years ago and continues today,” and implored them to “DO YOUR JOB!”
Hanisee declined to comment on the letter. But the prosecutor wrote in a response to Geimer that “this office has never `covered up’ any misconduct, nor is there, as you suggest, any misconduct continuing today.”
In an April 3 ruling, the judge spurned Braun’s request for a determination that Polanski has already served enough time in custody in connection with his guilty plea. Braun had pledged that Polanski would return for a sentencing hearing if the judge determined that the director has “already done his time.”
But the judge ruled there is “no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues.”
“… Polanski is not entitled to avail himself of this court’s power to hear his demands while he openly stands in contempt of a legal order from this very court,” Gordon wrote.
The judge also denied the defense’s request to honor an alleged promise by now-deceased Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband to forego additional jail time for Polanski in exchange for the filmmaker’s submission to a diagnostic examination in state prison.
Polanski must present himself to the court to seek such relief, the judge ruled then.
–City News Service