Roman Polanski's Rape Victim Takes His Side In Court

LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman who was the teenage victim in Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski's 1977 sex case is expected to appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday for a hearing in the fugitive filmmaker's case.

"She wants this case over. It's been 40 years. ... She just wants to get it over with," Polanski's attorney, Harland Braun, said of Samantha Geimer.

Geimer's attorney could not be reached for immediate comment.

In a letter sent to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in April, Geimer accused prosecutors of treating her with "contempt" and "using a crime committed against me to further your own careers."

"Celebrity cases should not be misused by those like yourselves for some limelight and career advancement. We have all heard that there is (a) special place in Hell for women who do not help other women. I hope it is true," Geimer wrote in a letter to Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, the prosecutor assigned to Polanski's case.

Geimer, who was 13 at the time of the crime, wrote that she is "outraged that you continue to cover up the misconduct that has occurred in this case, which began 40 years ago and continues today" and implored them to "DO YOUR JOB!"

"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 wrote.

Hanisee declined to comment on the letter. But the prosecutor wrote in a response to Geimer that "this office has never 'covered up' any misconduct, nor is there, as you suggest, any misconduct continuing today."

At a court hearing in April, the prosecutor said the woman had written a letter concurring with a request by Polanski's latest attorney to unseal a transcript of closed-door testimony from former Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson, who was handling the case when Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to unlawful sexual intercourse.

Braun has said he believes the transcript will confirm a plea deal negotiated in 1978 calling for Polanski to be sentenced to time already served behind bars.

The 83-year-old director, writer and producer — who won an Oscar in 2002 for "The Pianist" — fled to France in 1978 before his sentencing and still lives in Europe. Southern California authorities have tried for years to bring him back to America.

Braun maintains that Polanski has already done more than enough time behind bars, including time he spent at a state prison in Chino in the late 1970s for a pre-sentencing diagnostic examination and also in jail and under house arrest in Switzerland in 2009 as Swiss authorities considered an extradition request.

In a ruling April 3, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon spurned Braun's request for a determination that Polanski has already served enough time in custody in connection with his guilty plea. Braun had pledged that Polanski would return for a sentencing hearing if the judge determined that the director has "already done his time."

But the judge ruled there is "no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues."

"... Polanski is not entitled to avail himself of this court's power to hear his demands while he openly stands in contempt of a legal order from this very court," Gordon wrote.

The judge also denied the defense's request to honor an alleged promise by now-deceased Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband to forego additional jail time for Polanski in exchange for the filmmaker's submission to a diagnostic examination in state prison.

Polanski must present himself to the court to seek such relief, the judge ruled.

By City News Service

Photo: Documentary subject Samantha Geimer arrives at the premiere of 'Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired' at the Paris Theatre on May 6, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)