Samantha Geimer, who was raped at 13 by director Roman Polanski, urged a judge on Friday to resolve the 40-year-old case.
It just wasn't as traumatic for me as everyone would like to believe it was.
Film director Roman Polanski attends the "Based On A True Story" photocall during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival in May. A lawyer for Polanski says his sex crime victim, Samantha Geimer, will appeal to a Los Angeles judge on Friday, June 9, 2017, to help make the case that Polanski has served his time for the 40-year-old crime.
(AP Photo/File). FILE - In this August 8, 1977 file photo, director Roman Polanski appears in a Santa Monica, Calif., courthouse.
Judge Scott Gordon says the case won't be settled until Roman Polanski hands himself over for sentencing.
It was the first time Geimer had appeared in court to defend Polanski.
FILE - In this May 27, 2017 photo, director Roman Polanski appears at the photo call for the film, "Based On A True Story", at the 70th worldwide film festival, Cannes, southern France. However, he fled the country after a judge indicated that his plea bargain could be overruled and turned into a much longer sentence.
Geimer said the Los Angeles DA's office had been "hypocritical" in refusing to honor her request to close the case.
Roman Polanski could be absolutely clear of the accusation in court if the judge will take into account the words of director's victim.
Geimer, who now lives in Hawaii and was accompanied to Friday's hearing by her husband of almost 30 years, told the judge he could explore various avenues to settle the matter, including dismissing it, sentencing Polanski to time served or recalling an global arrest warrant against the director.
"It's not the people (state) who have caused her continued suffering", she said.
"I'm standing here saying he's served his sentence", Geimer said after the hearing.
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Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee has asked the court to reject Polanski's latest efforts, arguing that two previous Superior Court judges and an appeals court have ruled against the movie director, said The AP.
Gordon commended her for speaking out and said he would take her plea into account as he decides whether to unseal documents that Polanski claims show he reached a plea agreement in 1977 to serve 48 days in jail for the rape.
But in 1978, convinced the judge was going to scrap his plea deal and send him to prison for up to 50 years, he fled to France.
Polanski's lawyers have been fighting to end the case for years and lift an global arrest warrant that confined him to France, Switzerland and Poland, where he fled the Holocaust.
Fearing arrest if he returned to the U.S. he was unable to collect his 2002 best director Oscar for The Pianist. He was also nominated for 1974's "Chinatown" and 1979's "Tess". If that happens, the California warrant would remain valid.
Polanski is trying to have his outstanding worldwide arrest warrant lifted.
Polanski, who has dual Polish and French citizenship, was re-arrested in Switzerland in 2009 and spent time in prison and under house arrest before being released.
If a judge were to drop the warrant for Polanski, 83, it would end a almost four-decade effort by authorities to have the director extradited.
She told the court that she was no longer afraid to speak out and had been subjected to "insult and mistreatment" by the original judge in the case and prosecutors, and simply wanted the legal drama settled.
Geimer said she forgives the director for the assault that occurred at Academy Award-winning actor Jack Nicholson's compound in Hollywood Hills. Geimer was 13 and Polanski 43 at the time of the accused rape in 1977, according to The Associated Press. Nicholson was not at the residence at the time. Her longtime lawyer Lawrence Silver did not return phone and email messages seeking comment.
While most sex abuse victims are criticizing the government for stronger sentencing in an effort to curb the number of incidents and to feel vindicated in their specific cases, Geimer is taking the opposite approach.
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