The woman who was raped by filmmaker Roman Polanski as a teenager four decades ago appeared in court to plead on his behalf.
Samantha Geimer pleaded with a judge in the downtown Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday to end the 40-year-old case so she could move on with her life.
This is the first time the 54-year-old has appeared in court on behalf of Polanski for the long-running case.
She had previously told reporters that she was terrified to speak in court, but she believed the hearing would be her last chance to tell the judge her feelings about the case.
Geimer was 13 at the time of the assault in 1977.
‘I would implore you to do this for me, out of mercy for myself,’ she told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon on Friday.
‘I am not speaking on behalf of Roman, but justice,’ she added, reading from a statement.
‘I implore you to consider to resolve this matter without incarcerating an 83-year-old man.’
Geimer told the judge that she was no longer afraid to speak out and simply wanted the matter settled.
Geimer said she had recently become a grandmother and did not want her family subjected to any more suffering from the case.
The judge said he would take her plea into account as he decides whether to unseal documents that Polanski claims show he reached a plea agreement in 1977 to serve 48 days in jail for the rape.
‘Your words mean a lot to this court,’ the judge said without specifying when he would issue his decision.
Geimer has said in the past that she has forgiven Polanski.
Polanski’s lawyer, Harland Braun, had said earlier that Geimer would help make the case that the filmmaker had served his time for the 40-year-old crime.
‘She’s tired of this case,’ Braun had said. ‘The judge is just playing games with him.’
The Oscar-winner has been a fugitive since he fled to France in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor.
Polanski feared the judge was going to renege on the plea agreement and send him away for more time than the six weeks he served in prison prior to sentencing.
Polanski attacked Geimer, whose surname at the time was Gailey, back in 1977 when she was just 13 years old.
The rape occurred at Jack Nicholson’s Mulholland Drive home during a photo shoot. Polanski had picked the then-13-year-old schoolgirl up, plied her with champagne and drugs after photographing her and forced himself on her.
He makes no denial of it, accepting it was ‘morally and legally wrong’, according to his lawyer.
Geimer has long supported Polanski’s bid to end the case and has forgiven the director. However, she has never appeared on his behalf in court.
His lawyers have been fighting for years to end the case and lift an international arrest warrant that confined him to his native France, Switzerland and Poland, where he fled the Holocaust.
The warrant prevented Polanski from collecting his Academy Award for best director for his 2002 film ‘The Pianist.’ He was also nominated for 1974’s ‘Chinatown’ and 1979’s ‘Tess.’
Polanski, 83, is trying to get the Interpol warrant lifted so he can move freely among nearly 190 countries in the global policing network. If that happened, the California warrant would still be valid.
Polanski contends he is the victim of judicial misconduct because the now-deceased judge who handled the case suggested in private remarks that he would not honor a plea bargain agreement.
It called for no more time behind bars for the director after he spent 42 days in a prison undergoing a diagnostic screening.
The hearing Friday is an effort by Braun to get the court to unseal testimony by the now-deceased prosecutor in the case, who is believed to have testified in a closed session about backroom sentencing discussions.
Braun wants to use the transcript to show Polanski has served his time so the international warrant is dropped. Braun also argues that Polanski served an additional 10 months under house arrest during a failed extradition effort from Switzerland in 2010.
Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee wouldn’t comment on the case Thursday but was expected to file a response to Polanski’s brief.
Prosecutors have vigorously opposed any efforts to end the case without Polanski appearing in court – a position upheld by a state appeals court.
Judge Scott Gordon has rejected Polanski’s efforts to resolve the case in the director’s absence or with a promise that he wouldn’t be sentenced to more time or be arrested if he voluntarily returned for a sentencing hearing.
Back in April she sent a letter to prosecutors in Los Angeles demanding they grant his request to unseal vital testimony which could secure his return to the US.
Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Michele Hanisee was forced to read her scathing words aloud in court after being compelled by a judge in April.
‘You and those who have come before you have never protected me, you have treated me with contempt using a crime committed against me to further your own careers,’ Geimer said in her letter.
Polanski lives in Paris with his family, but has been unable to travel to see some of his children due to the outstanding arrest warrant.
Braun told DailyMail.com that ‘his daughter is in London but he’s unable to get to her.’
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