Wow, this is quite an interesting story:
The woman who was raped by fugitive director Roman Polanski three decades ago when she was 13 lashed out at the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Monday, saying she is being victimized again by prosecutors’ focus on lurid details of what happened to her.
Samantha Geimer, 45, filed a legal declaration asking that the charge against Polanski be dismissed in the interest of saving her from further trauma as the case is publicized anew.
Now a wife and mother of three children, Geimer said that the insistence by prosecutors and the court that Polanski must appear in person to seek dismissal “is a joke, a cruel joke being played on me.”
Geimer said she believes prosecutors are reciting sexually explicit details of the case to distract from their office’s own wrongdoing 31 years ago. The alleged wrongdoing was brought to light in the documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” which prompted the director’s lawyer to file a motion for dismissal.
A hearing is set for Jan. 21 on Polanski’s motion for dismissal. But prosecutors have said he must appear in person — an act which would risk his arrest.
“If Polanski cannot stand before the court to make this request, I, as the victim, can and I, as the victim do,” she said in the declaration signed at her home in Kilauea, Hawaii.
In a motion filed Jan. 6, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren provided sexually explicit descriptions of the 1977 assault of Geimer during a photo shoot by Polanski. It included extensive testimony from grand jury transcripts at the time which included graphic details of the incident. The details of Polanski’s sexual activity with the girl had never before been described in legal documents
Geimer said she was disappointed that the district attorney “has, yet one more time, given great publicity to the lurid details of those events for all to read again.”
I admit I don’t understand the legal intricacies of all this, but, man, I feel awful for this woman, having her story dragged throughout the press over and over again. Aren’t underage victims supposed to have their names kept out of this stuff? Or is it legal to release their names once they’re adults?
Roman Polanski is 75 years old now and living in exile in France.
I was rather surprised when I watched the documentary how she wasn’t bitter at all, her mother pushed she and her sister into acting and put them in situations like being alone with much older men who could help their careers frequently, so she never fully blamed Roman, or her own mother it would seem.
Having sex with anyone 13 is wrong. There is no excuse for it, and he was going to get minimal prison time but chose to leave the country, where he continued to have sex with young girls. Roman had a relationship with Natasha Kinkski when she was 15 and moved her in with him not long after this happened. He’s 70 – he may not be sexually active but that doesn’t mean he should consider living in Paris for 30+ years a proper punishment for his crime.
I’d tell Roman Polanski “Sure, come on back to the US, once you agree to castration”.
I recommend that for anybody who thinks that Polanski should be let off the hook that they first check out the grand jury testimony transcripts (see http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html). While he’s no doubt a talented director, and his mind was probably pretty jacked up as an indirect victim of the Manson murders, he should have stayed and faced the system and its consequences like a man, instead of running like a rabbit.
Let him rot in France.. he knew better no matter what her mother agreed to..
funny – we never get to have these same discussions about bill wyman and his ex-wife, mandy… whom he met when she was 13 and whom he married when she was 18 and he was 53.
mandy’s mother was the one who “encouraged” her to meet (and bed) mr. wyman.
plus, mr. wyman had not just had his wife, his child and friends butchered a short time before any of this happened…
i’m not saying polanski was right – i’m just sayin’ he isn’t the only one.
wait what
I do feel bad for her, and agree that this is insane, dragging her thru it again. But instead of asking that they dismiss the case, she should insist Polanski come here and get it over with. She did not have the right to consent to the act at the time, neither did her mother have the right to give her to Polanski, and she does not have the right to insist on a dismissal.
If he could have just manned up this could have been over with years ago.
she can’t FORCE him to show up somehow. it would have been done with forevvvver ago.
I’m sure very few of the people living a few blocks from the Plaza Athenee in Paris view it as “living in exile.”
It’s too bad most people are ignorant in this case. How many people actually know that Polanski plead guilty and voluntarily served psychiatric evaluation time in Chino State Prison as part of the plea bargain which agreed to 90 days in said facility? Not a lot I’d wager. However, after 42 days the judge decided (in a nice bit of extralegal attention grabbing) that it wasn’t going to cut it and wanted to sentence him to 50 years. That is why he fled the country. Not because he thought he had done nothing wrong, but because a corrupt judge wanted some time in the spotlight and decided to bring the hammer down way too hard after having already settled a plea bargain. Polanski was wrong to do what he did, but he was willing to accept responsibility for it. It’s possible for him to be wrong and to be wronged at the same time. Sadly this comment will do nothing to educate people and the ignorant people who pass judgment will continue to do so.
Come On! He screwed a 13 year old kid. You must not have a daughter of your own. Had it been my child, I’d have jammed a revolver down his throat and forced him to pull the trigger. What has happened in this country that we are so willing to look for excuses for scum bags like Polanski. Let’s also remember that she was not his last victim. The guy is sick. If you are attempting to defend him, based upon the treatment he received from a gung-ho judge, you may be a little sick yourself. Polanski did not want to accept responsibility for his actions, that’s why he’s been sitting in France for 3 decades. He’s a coward and a leach. Let the French keep him. They deserve him.
This is a difficult topic for me to write about, but as a victim of rape who has never brought her rapist to justice I totally understand how she feels. The thought of facing him, of dredging all that fear and hurt and confusion and guilt (yes, some rape victims feel excruciatingly guilty) is far worse than anything else. It probably threatens her very core.
I know I could never speak about it in a court room. and through previous jobs I have had experience with advocacy, so the court holds no fear for me, but the thought of saying those things in front of HIM – Id rather die.
so leave her alone, shes been punished enough.
You’re very brave to have written about your terrible experience. Thank you for your honesty. Have you ever heard of the Hoffman Process? (www.quadrinity.com) I experienced something similar and this programme really helped me.
thanks trolly dolly, I will look that up.
Thankfully the whole experience no longer affects my happiness, i hope you feel that too, or are on your way there :)
I’m great now, thankfully but it took alot of work!!
Take care and best wishes x
thanks trolly dolly, I will look that up.
Thankfully the whole experience no longer affects my happiness, i hope you feel that too, or are on your way there :)