French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States decades ago after admitting to the rape of a 13-year-old girl, will no longer be tried for alleged assault on another minor after reaching a settlement , his lawyer said on Tuesday.
The latest case against the director of “The Pianist”, which concerned an alleged sexual assault in 1973was scheduled to stand trial in civil court in Los Angeles next August but has now been withdrawn, Polanski’s U.S. lawyer told Agence France-Presse.
The case was “settled this summer to the mutual satisfaction of the parties and has been formally closed,” Alexander Rufus-Isaacs said in an email.
Nice sale / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The complaint, filed last year, claimed Polanski took a then-teenage girl — named anonymously in documents as Jane Doe — to dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1973.
He allegedly gave her tequila and, when she started feeling dizzy, he drove her to his house, where he forced himself on her.
“She told him, ‘Please don’t do this,'” the plaintiff’s attorney, Gloria Allred, told reporters in March.
“She alleges that he ignored her arguments. She also alleges that defendant Polanski removed plaintiff’s clothes and began to sexually assault her, causing her enormous physical and emotional pain and suffering. ”
The civil suit, which sought unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, just before the expiration of a California law allowing an extended window for prosecutions of alleged sex crimes.
Court documents filed in California in July indicated a “conditional” agreement had been reached.
Allred said in an email Tuesday that “a settlement of the claims has been agreed upon by the parties to their mutual satisfaction.”
CBS News has contacted Allred and Rufus-Isaacs for further comment.
Oscar winner Polanski, now 91, is a divisive figure, with some in the film world hailing his creative genius while others insist he was always a sexual predator .
Polanski admitted to the rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a 1977 plea bargain to avoid trial on more serious charges.
But he fled to France the following year, after serving 42 days in prison, when it emerged that a judge was reconsidering his release.
Geimer later defended Polanski and was photographed with him last year.
A French court in May acquitted Polanski of defamation of British actress Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.
The director has always denied any wrongdoing.
