The Franco-Polish director Roman Polanskiwho fled the United States decades ago after admitting to raping a minor under 13 years oldwill no longer face trial for an alleged assault on another teenager in the 1970s after reaching an agreement, his lawyer reported this Tuesday.
The last accusation against the director of ‘The Pianist’, which referred to an alleged rape in 1973, was due to be presented before a civil court in Los Angeles next August, but has been withdrawn, Polanski’s lawyer in the United States told AFP. Joined.
The case was “resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties and has now been formally dismissed» Alexander Rufus-Isaacs said in an email.
The lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that Polanski had taken a teenage girl, confidentially named Jane Doe, to dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1973.
He allegedly got her drunk and forced her
He allegedly gave her tequila and, when the minor began to feel dizzy, he took her to his house, where he forced himself on her.
“She told him, ‘Please don’t do this,'” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told the press in March.
«She alleges that he ignored her pleas.. “It also alleges that the defendant Polanski removed the plaintiff’s clothes and proceeded to sexually assault her, causing her tremendous physical and emotional pain and suffering,” he concluded.
The civil suit, which sought unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, just before a California law allowing extensions of the deadline for filing legal action against alleged perpetrators of sex crimes expired.
Court documents filed in California in July said a “conditional” settlement had been reached.
The plaintiff’s lawyer did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
A controversial 91-year-old director
Oscar-winning Polanski, 91, is a controversial figure: some in the film world praise his creative genius, while others insist that he always He was a sexual predator.
Polanski admitted in 1977 to raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea deal to avoid a trial on more serious charges.
But he fled to France the following year, after spending 42 days in jail, when it seemed a judge would reconsider his release.
Geimer has subsequently defended Polanski, and was photographed with him last year.
In May, A French court acquitted Polanski of defaming British actress Charlotte Lewisafter she accused him of having raped her when she was a teenager.
The director has always denied having committed any crime.
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