By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times –
LOS ANGELES — The woman whom Roman Polanski was convicted of sexually assaulting in Los Angeles when she was a teenager will pen a memoir she says promises new insight into the scandal.
Samantha Geimer, 47, struck a deal with Afria Books for “The Girl: Emerging from the Shadow of Roman Polanski” for an undisclosed sum.
The book publisher, a Simon & Schuster imprint, says Geimer will provide “insight into the many dimensions of the story that have never previously been revealed.”
Geimer was 13 when the movie director plied the aspiring model with champagne and Quaaludes and told her he was photographing her for French Vogue. The 1977 incident occurred in a bedroom of actor Jack Nicholson’s house.
Polanski was arrested in Los Angeles and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He then fled to France.
Geimer, now a mother of four, has said repeatedly and publicly that she thinks Polanski was treated unfairly and expressed a desire for the case to be resolved without prison time.
When Polanski sought to have the rape charge dismissed in 2008, she told the Los Angeles Times she welcomed an opportunity to finally end the case.”It’s been a long time,” she said. “I don’t wish for him to be held to further punishment or consequences.”
In 2003, Geimer, who publicly identifies herself as the victim in the Polanski assault, wrote an opinion piece for the Times, saying the case should not be a barrier to Polanski’s winning an Academy Award. Polanski ended up winning best director for “The Pianist.”
Geimer had filed a civil lawsuit in 1988, accusing the director of sexual assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and seduction.
Polanski was deposed in Paris in 1993. According to court documents reviewed by the Times, Polanski agreed to pay Geimer at least $500,000 as part of a settlement after he fled the U.S.
Polanski remains a fugitive. In 2010, after Polanski was arrested on an international warrant, the Swiss government declined to extradite him to the United States, allowing him to live freely in Switzerland and France, where he has resided since he fled the United States 32 years ago.
The Swiss decision angered the State Department, which said, “A 13-year-old girl was drugged and raped. … This is not a matter of technicality.”
