LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Another woman is accusing Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski of child sexual abuse, filing a lawsuit in against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court that is set to go to trial in August of 2025.
The woman, who held a news conference Tuesday in L.A. with her attorney Gloria Allred, is not revealing her name. Her lawsuit alleges that in 1973 Polanski got her drunk with tequila when she was a minor, then raped her in his house.
“It took me a really long time to decide to file this suit against Mr. Polanski but I finally did make that decision and I’ve decided that I want to file it to obtain justice and accountability,” said the woman is using the name Jane Doe in the lawsuit.
Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor. That girl was just 13 years old at the time. Decades later, the woman in that case asked the courts to drop the charges against Polanski.
Polanski, 90, has been living in France since fleeing, and has been accused of other child sexual assault crimes including by British actress Charlotte Lewis. But France has refused to extradite him to the US.
“Our client’s filed complaint alleges rape, sexual battery against defendant Polanski and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress,” said Allred.
ABC7 reached out to Polanski’s representatives and were given this statement:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors has voted to expel Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from its membership.
“Mr. Polanski strenuously denies the allegations made against him in the lawsuit and believes that the proper place to try this case is in the courts, and not in press conferences.”
Allred says it’s unlikely Polanski will be in court for this case.
“If in fact he returns to the United States, he will be immediately arrested,” she said. “He’s a fugitive from justice.”
At least three other women have come forward with stories of Polanski sexually abusing them.
A major figure in the New Hollywood film renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s, Polanski directed movies including “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown.”
In 1977, he was charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. He reached an agreement with prosecutors that he would plead guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse and would not have to go to prison beyond the jail time he had already served.
But Polanski feared that the judge was going to renege on the agreement before it was finalized and in 1978 fled to Europe. According to transcripts unsealed in 2022, a prosecutor testified that the judge had in fact planned to reject the deal.
Polanski’s lawyers have been fighting for years to end the case and lift an international arrest warrant that confined him to his native France, Switzerland and Poland, where authorities have rejected U.S. requests for his extradition.
He continued making films and won an Oscar for best director for “The Pianist” in 2003. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled him in 2018 after the #MeToo movement gained momentum.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.