Roman Polanski to face LA trial next year for alleged 1973 rape of teen
The director, 90, is accused of rape, sexual battery and intentional affliction of severe emotional distress for alleged incident.
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, who is currently entangled in a defamation trial in Paris, will face trial next year in the United States over allegations of raping a minor in 1973.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented the victims of Jeffery Epstein, Bill Cosby and former US president Donald Trump, confirmed in a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday that a judge has set Polanski’s trial for August 2025.
The plaintiff, introduced as Jane Doe, alleges that Polanski, now 90, raped her in 1973, when she was underage, at his home in Benedict Canyon.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff had met Polanski at a party months before the alleged assault. Polanski invited her to dinner at the Los Angeles restaurant Le Restaurant, where he allegedly gave her shots of tequila. Then he drove her to his house, where she passed out on his bed, according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff remembers waking up in Defendant’s bed with him lying in the bed next to her,” the lawsuit states. “He told her that he wanted to have sex with her. Plaintiff, though groggy, told Defendant ‘No.’ She told him, ‘Please don’t do this.’”
The complaint brings claims for rape, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The plaintiff, who first came forward with allegations against Polanski in 2017, filed a lawsuit using the name Jane Doe last year under a change in California law that extends the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.
Polanski was served with the lawsuit at his home in Paris, where he has lived since 1978 after fleeing the US to escape trial over charges he raped a 13-year-old girl.
Allred and Jane Doe held a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, where the plaintiff said: “It took me a really long time to decide this suit against Mr. Polanski.” She added that she ultimately pursued it “to obtain justice and accountability.”
“Our client Jane Doe has demonstrated enormous courage in filing her lawsuit against a famous director who previously pled guilty to a sex crime against a child and then fled to Europe to escape sentencing,” Allred said.
Polanski’s attorneys have ‘strenuously’ denied the claim.
“Mr. Polanski strenuously denies the allegations in the lawsuit and believes that the proper place to try this case is in the courts,” said Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, his lawyer.
Polanski would not have to attend the civil trial in person but could appear via a video livestream if needed for testimony. “He is not coming back,” Allred said. “This is a civil lawsuit. He does not have to appear.”
The filing of the complaint comes as Polanski faces a trial in Paris over allegations that he defamed British actress Charlotte Lewis, 56, whom he accused of disseminating an “odious lie” after she alleged that he raped her in 1983, when she was 16 years old.
Lewis told a Paris criminal court last Tuesday that she had been “destroyed” by his attempts to discredit her and that she would advise other rape victims to keep quiet to shield themselves from the kind of relentless attacks she has weathered since going public with the allegations.
“I would have preferred not to have said anything. If a woman told me she had been raped, I would advise her to draw a line under all that because otherwise, you will be destroyed,” she said.
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