SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Film director Roman Polanski agreed to pay the victim in his sex crime case at least $500,000 as part of a civil settlement reached years after he fled the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
Polanski reached a confidential settlement in 1993 with Samantha Geimer, the newspaper said, citing court filings made available on Friday. The paper said it was not clear whether the filmmaker paid her. The final document filed in August 1996 had him still owing Geimer $604,416, according to the Times.
Geimer has acknowledged reaching a civil settlement with Polanski, the Times said.
Polanski, 76, was arrested in Switzerland last weekend on a US warrant and his lawyers say he will fight extradition to the United States where he faces a possible prison sentence for pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old Geimer in 1977.
The Oscar-winning director of The Pianist, Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown fled the United States in 1978. He had served 42 days in detention but believed a judge would sentence him to years behind bars despite having made a plea agreement for time already served.
Lawyers for Polanski failed earlier this year to have the case against him dismissed because of suspected judicial misconduct in 1977. A Los Angeles judge ruled Polanski would have to return to California before he would consider a dismissal of the charges.
