Angels:
French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States after being convicted of child sex abuse, will face a civil trial for allegedly raping another minor years ago, the woman’s lawyer said Tuesday.
The case against the “The Pianist” director will be heard in Los Angeles in August 2025, said Hollywood lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented rapist Harvey Weinstein and others who have emerged as victims of the #MeToo era.
Allred said that while Polanski cannot be forced to attend the trial, the civil hearing will provide her client, who is named in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, an opportunity to seek justice for the alleged 1973 attack.
The lawsuit filed last year alleges that Polanski took the then-teenager to dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1973.
He allegedly gave her tequila and when she began to feel dizzy, he drove her to his home in Tony Benedict Canyon where he forced himself on her.
“She told him: ‘Please don’t do this,'” Allred told reporters.
“She claims that he ignored her pleas. She also claims that Defendant Polanski removed Plaintiff’s clothes and then sexually assaulted her, causing her substantial physical and emotional pain.”
The woman, whose age was not disclosed, first made the accusation against Polanski in 2017, when she was identified as “Robin.”
The civil lawsuit, filed in June 2023, seeks unspecified damages and California law allows for an extension of the deadline to file claims against sex crime suspects.
Oscar-winner Polanski, 90, is a controversial figure, with some in the film industry praising his creative genius while others insist he has always been a sexual predator.
In the late 1970s, Polanski fled the United States while awaiting sentencing for assaulting, drugging and raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer.
Geimer later defended Polanski and was photographed with him last year.
Polanski, who directed “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” is currently facing a libel trial in France against British actress Charlotte Lewis, who claims that Polanski assaulted her in 1983 when she was 16.
The director has always denied wrongdoing.
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