Polanski victim asks court to drop charges

RELIEF IN SIGHT?

Polanski victim asks court to drop charges

Los Angeles: The victim in the Roman Polanski child sex case has renewed calls for the case against the director to be dismissed and urged the media to leave her alone, court filings showed.
    Lawyers for Samantha Geimer made the request in a court motion filed in Los Angeles on Friday, the latest of several pleas she has made for authorities to throw out the 1977 criminal case against Polanski. The motion said Geimer, who now lives in Hawaii with her husband and children, has suffered health problems and job worries after a media “frenzy” following Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland last month. It cited calls by CNN’s Larry King, US talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey, “every” national network morning show, three Los Angeles Times reporters and “nearly every major newspaper” from the United States and around the world. “Between Samantha and her counsel, they have received close to 500 telephone calls from media around the world seeking a comment,” the motion filed with California’s Second District Court of Appeal read. “The response — ‘please leave me alone.’ But they won’t leave her alone.”
    “Calls at all hours, invade her at home, on her cell phone and at her place of employment… The victim is again the victim,” the filing said. “The pursuit has caused her to have health-related issues. The pursuit has caused her performance at her job to be interfered with,” it read, noting Geimer risked “the real possibility” of losing her job as a result.
    Geimer was a starry-eyed 13-year-old when Polanski plied her with champagne and drugs at the Hollywood Hills home of his actor friend Jack Nicholson during a photo shoot over 30 years ago. He was initially charged with felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare Geimer the ordeal of a trial.
    Polanski later served 42 days at a secure unit undergoing psychiatric evaluation but fled the country on the eve of his sentencing in 1978. His lawyers have argued that the judge who presided over his case held improper discussions with Los Angeles prosecutors and was planning to go back on a sentencing deal agreed with the filmmaker’s legal team.
    Geimer’s lawyer Lawrence Silver argued in the motion that Polanski had been forced to flee by a “corrupt” judge. Yet Geimer suffered the consequences of a “failed judicial and prosecutorial system,” the filing added. AFP