The woman raped by filmmaker Roman Polanski decades ago when she was a teen is set to appear before a Los Angeles judge on Friday to appeal for the court to end the case.
Polanski’s attorney Harland Braun told AFP on Thursday that Samantha Geimer will appear with her husband at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court to buttress the filmmaker’s case that he had served time for the 1977 crime.
“She is coming with her husband because she is tired of this case going on for 40 years,” he said. “She wants it over.”
He said it was up to the judge to decide whether to take into account Geimer’s request in the long-running case.
The director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” was accused of drugging Geimer when she was 13 before raping her at the film star Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in 1977.
He admitted statutory rape after a number of more serious charges were dropped, and spent an initial 42 days in jail before being released.
But in 1978, convinced a judge was going to scrap his plea deal and send him to prison for decades, he fled for France and has been on the run ever since.
Braun said he had spoken with Polanski on Thursday to inform him of the new twist in the case.
“He thought it might help,” Braun said, commenting on his conversation with the filmmaker.