Polanski Transcripts Should Be Unsealed; DA Gascón Says

LOS ANGELES, CA — Long-hidden transcripts from the Roman Polanski molestation case should be released to the public in an effort to bring transparency to one of Hollywood's longest-running criminal sagas, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office announced Tuesday

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón reversed a years-old policy of objecting to the release of the conditional examination transcripts of former Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson in the case of People v. Roman Polanski. In 1977 Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the teenage girl, but he fled the country before being sentenced. The victim in the case requested the transcripts be unsealed years ago as part of an investigation into alleged judicial misconduct.

“This case has been described by the courts as ‘one of the longest-running sagas in California criminal justice history,’” District Attorney Gascón said. “For years, this office has fought the release of information that the victim and public have a right to know.

After careful consideration of the victim’s wishes, the unique and extraordinary circumstances that led to his conditional exam and my commitment to transparency and accountability for all in the justice system, my office has determined it to be in the interest of justice to agree to the unsealing of these transcripts.”

Polanski has been a fugitive since pleading guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in August of 1977 and fleeing the United States.

In 2017, Polanski's victim Samantha Geimer blasted prosecutors, alleging misconduct and contempt for the life-long suffering the case has caused her.

"... I would implore you to consider taking action which can finally bring this matter to a close as an act of mercy to myself and my family," Samantha Geimer told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon. She told the judge she has "endured the pendency of this case for over 40 years" and said dismissal of the matter would be a "way to expedite a conclusion" to the case.

Geimer, who was 13 at the time and is now a grandmother, pleaded with the judge to consider that "now a fifth generation of my family may be unfairly burdened and resolve this matter without the spectacle of arresting and incarcerating an (now 88)-year-old defendant for the benefit of the egos involved in this case."

She noted that she has suffered "insults and mistreatment" for 40 years.

At that time in 2017, Polanski's attorney, Harland Braun, asked the judge to dismiss the case in the interests of justice, saying his client has accepted responsibility for his actions and had a "reasonable fear of our system."

Braun has said he believes a transcript of closed-door testimony from former Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson will confirm a plea deal negotiated in 1978 calling for Polanski to be sentenced to time already served behind bars.

The defense lawyer has maintained that Polanski has already served more than enough time, 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.

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

For her part, Geimer has said she elieves Polanski has served his sentence and "done everything he needed to do."

"I knew he was sorry. He got arrested. I knew he was sorry the next day. I was sure he instantly regretted what he had done and wished it hadn't happened," Geimer told reporters, noting that Polanski wrote her a note and apologized to her and her mother.

She said she has "empathy" for Polanski, noting that he is now facing the same type of insults she endured in the early days of the 1977 sex case, when she was 13 years old.

"Well, now he endures it because everyone calls him a pedophile and says terrible things about him which aren't true. So the insults have switched, but I have empathy for the way he is treated because I was treated the same way when this first happened," Geimer said.

Geimer also put the blame for the saga on prosecutors.

In a letter sent to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in 2017, 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 wrote in the letter 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!"

City News Service contributed to this report.