Samantha Geimer, the woman film director Roman Polanski admitted raping when she was a teenager 40 years ago, on Friday made her first public appearance at a court hearing in the case and was expected to plead for the long-running matter to be resolved.
Geimer, who was 13 years old when Polanski assaulted her in Los Angeles in 1977, was greeted by a phalanx of photographers and TV crews as she arrived for a hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court.
“I am terrified. This may be my last chance,” Geimer said before entering the courthouse.
Geimer, who now lives in Hawaii, has said repeatedly that she has forgiven Polanski, now 83, and that the fugitive “Chinatown” director should not serve any more time behind bars.
Polanski’s attorney, Harland Braun, said Geimer planned to ask the judge on Friday to bring the case to a conclusion.
“Samantha Geimer is tired of this … She wants to get it over with,” Braun said on Thursday.
Following a 1977 guilty plea to rape and spending 42 days in pre-trial jail, Polanski fled the United States, fearing a plea bargain with prosecutors would be overruled and that he would get a lengthy prison term.
The most recent attempt to resolve the case ended in April when a Los Angeles judge ruled that the French-Polish director could not cut a deal from abroad to return to the United States without serving more jail time.
Braun’s aim at Friday’s hearing is to unseal testimony about the 1977 plea deal and use it as evidence to get European authorities to rescind the international arrest warrant against Polanski.
Polanski, whose films include “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Pianist,” was arrested on U.S. warrants in both Poland and Switzerland during the past decade, but both countries ultimately declined to extradite him.
