In Recently-Filed Case, Roman Polanski Denies He Sexually Assaulted Underage Girl In 1973
01.11.2023 - 23:29
/ deadline.com
Roman Polanski has officially denied a woman’s accusation that the director sexually assaulted her at his home in 1973 after plying her with tequila both there and at a restaurant while knowing she was a minor at the time.
In court papers filed Oct. 20 with Santa Monica Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford III, the 90-year-old director’s attorney cites multiple defenses, including violation of the statute of limitations, that the plaintiff’s damages are based on guesswork, speculation and conjecture and that the woman accuses Polanski of a crime, sexual battery, that did not become law until 1990.
The Oscar-winner’s attorney asks that plaintiff Jane Doe’s case be dismissed “with prejudice” – meaning it could not be refiled – and that the plaintiff “take nothing” from Polanski.
According to the suit filed June 16 and amended July 11, Doe met Polanski at a party in 1973, the year he would film Chinatown. The alleged encounter occurred four years before the director fled the U.S. after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse involving a different victim, then 13-year-old Samantha Geimer.
Geimer sued Polanski in 1988 and the case was settled out of court in 1993. In 2003, Geimer said, “Straight up, what he did to me was wrong. But I wish he would return to America so the whole ordeal can be put to rest for both of us.”
There have been other such allegations against the director. German actress Renate Langer told Swiss police that Polanski raped her in Gstaad in 1972, when she was 15. American artist Marianne Barnard accused Polanski of having sexually assaulted her in 1975, when she was 10 years old. French photographer Valentine Monnier has alleged Polanski violently raped her at a ski chalet in Gstaad in 1975, which