Director Roman Polanski no longer faces trial in the United States over the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl over 40 years ago.
The case against the 91 year old French-Polish director was due to proceed in civil court in Los Angeles next August, but has now been settled.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
Latest Video
Polanski fled the US decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of another 13-year-old.
The Mail Online reports: The latest case was ‘settled in the summer to the parties’ mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed,’ Polanski’s attorney Alexander Rufus-Isaacs said.
The suit, filed last year, claimed Polanski took a then-teenager 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.
‘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 plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, appeared with Allred at a news conference in 2017 in which she said she had been 16 at the time of the alleged assault.
She said she had spoken about what happened to one friend the day after but had not told anyone about it ever since.
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 is a divisive figure, with some in the movie world hailing his creative genius, while others insist 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. France does not extradite its citizens.
Source link