Roman Polanski no longer faces trial over alleged 1973 rape of minor

French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the US in the late 70s after admitting to statutory rape of a 13-year-old, has reached a settlement in the civil case over an alleged sexual assault of another minor. He will no longer face trial, which was scheduled for August 2025.  

The case against the director of Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist, which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August.

The suit, filed in June 2023, claimed Polanski took a then-teenager - named anonymously in filings as Jane Doe - to dinner at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 1973. He allegedly gave her tequila, and when she began to feel dizzy, drove her to his home, where he forced himself on her. 

Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, Polanski's US attorney, told AFP that the case was "settled in the summer to the parties' mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed.” 

The Oscar-winner, now 91, has been accused of sexual assault and rape by a dozen women over the course of his career, accusations which he has always denied and not prevented him from working. 

Polanski admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 to avoid a trial on more serious charges. He fled to France the following year, after serving 42 days in jail. An international arrest warrant was issued by the US authorities, but he has never been extradited.  

Geimer has since asked several times for the charges to be dropped, and has subsequently defended Polanski. 

In May 2024, a French court acquitted Polanski of defaming British actress Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of raping her during an audition at his Paris home in 1983 when she was 16 years old.