Roman Polanski to appear in court over new rape lawsuit

Roman Polanski in Krakow in 2018

Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Cult film director Roman Polanski will stand trial next year in Los Angeles on charges of raping a teenage girl in 1973.

Attorney Gloria Allred confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday, March 12, that the judge has scheduled Polanski’s trial for August 2025, writes The Guardian.

The 90-year-old director of “The Pianist” and “Rosemary’s Baby” has been on the run from justice in the US for decades, trying to avoid punishment for the 1977 rape of 13-year-old Samantha Gamer. At the moment, in parallel with the trial in Los Angeles, Polanski is on trial in France for what he called false accusations of rape by a British actress.

In the case, Polanski is accused of rape, sexual assault and intentional infliction of great emotional distress over an incident that allegedly occurred in 1973.

So on March 12, an anonymous woman appeared in a Los Angeles court, claiming that Polanski raped her as a minor in 1973. She said she met the director at a party, and a few months later he invited her to dinner. There he gave her alcohol and brought her to his house in Los Angeles, eventually the girl woke up in the director’s bed.

“She also alleges that Defendant Polanski stripped Plaintiff of her clothing and sexually assaulted her, causing her immense physical and emotional pain and suffering.“, – said the lawyer.

After that, Polanski took the girl home, and she never saw him again.

She first brought charges against the famous director in 2017. And she filed the lawsuit only last year, after changes in California law that give victims of sexual violence more time to file lawsuits against abusers.

“It took me a very long time to decide to file this lawsuit against Mr. Polanski, but I finally made up my mind and decided that I wanted to file it for justice and accountability“, – she said.

Other allegations against Polanski

During 2017-2019, four women accused Polanski of sexually abusing them in the 1970s. Three of them were minors at the time. Among them is the artist Marianna Barnard, who said that she was raped when she was 10 years old.

In 2010, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in 1983 when she was 16 years old.

Polanski pleaded guilty only once – in 1978, he confessed to raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977. He spent 42 days in prison awaiting sentencing, but fled the US to Europe.

After that, he was arrested at the airport of Zurich (Switzerland) in 2009, he flew to the country for a film festival to receive an award for his contribution to the development of world cinema.

Also in 2015, the Polish court refused to allow the extradition of Polanski to America, explaining that “the inadmissibility of the extradition of the Polish-French citizen Roman Polanski to the USA“.

Moreover, Samantha Gamer herself several times asked to close the case against Polanski. She made similar requests in 1995, 1997 and 2009.

Due to constant accusations and legal proceedings, Polanski was for a long time an unwelcome guest at the world’s film festivals. However, last year the director presented (but not in person) his new film at the Venice Film Festival – it was a black comedy “Palace”, in which he filmed a whole crowd of Russian actors: the son of Fyodor Dobronravov, known for the series “Matchmakers”, Viktor, an actor from of the propaganda film “T-34” by Aleksandr Petrov, and also by Anton Pampushny, Ksenia Rappoport, Maryna Strahova.