Roman Polanski is hoping judges in the U.S. will stop pursuing his decades old sexual abuse case, insisting it is “over.”
Samantha Geimer was just 13 when she was raped by Polanski at a Hollywood party, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor, but left America and fled to France on the eve of sentencing in 1978. He has been living as a fugitive ever since.
In 2009, the filmmaker was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland and subsequently placed on house arrest as U.S. authorities attempted to extradite Polanski, but the request was denied in 2010.
The director and his victim, Geimer, have both attempted to shut down the case in recent years, but Polanski’s latest request in August (17) was denied and a judge ruled he must return to California if he expects to resolve charges levelled against him.
Polanski is now speaking out about the court drama, insisting it is time to put an end to it because he has been punished enough for his crimes.
“As you know Samantha Geimer has been asking for over 30 years for this thing to end,” he said while promoting his movie, Based on a True Story, at the Zurich Film Festival, “but I’m sorry the judges who dealt with it (case) the last 40 years were corrupted, one covering for the other… Maybe one of them will (eventually) stop doing it.”
“As far as what I did: It’s over. I pleaded guilty,” he adds. “I went to jail. I came back to the United States to do it, people forget about that, or don’t even know. I then was locked up here (in Zurich) after this festival. So in the sum, I did about four or five times than what was promised to me.”
Polanski was originally ordered to undergo 90 days of psychiatric evaluation at the California Institution for Men in Chino, as part of a plea agreement. He was released from prison after 42 days and was getting ready to comply with the plea deal, which also included probation. However, the filmmaker learned the judge was going to ignore the plea deal and sentence him to 50 years in prison and he subsequently fled.
His lawyer Harland Braun has recommended Polanski be sentenced to 334 days in absentia, which is equivalent to the time he served in the U.S. and under house arrest in Switzerland.
