Filmmaker Roman Polanski is under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department after new allegations that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in 1975.
Despite the fact that Polanski cannot be prosecuted — the statute of limitations has expired — the LAPD is still pursuing their investigation because uncovered information regarding Polanski’s past behaviour could help prosecution in other cases.
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Polanski, 84, and his lawyer, Harlan Braun, could not be reached for comment. Braun reportedly told celebrity website TMZ on Tuesday that he’s hiring his own private investigator to look into the matter, and the new accusations are “bogus.”
Artist Marianne Barnard has started up an online petition to get Polanski expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that gives out the Oscars, and claims that the director sexually assaulted her when she was 10 years old.
“When I was 10 years old, Roman Polanski photographed me naked under an open fur coat on the rocks at deserted Will Rogers State beach in Malibu,” reads the petition. “I believe my mother arranged the encounter. After it happened, I didn’t say anything to anyone. I wish that I had been brave enough to speak out, tell a friend, their parent or even a teacher. Maybe if I had, the other girls wouldn’t have been assaulted by Polanski (a convicted statutory rapist) also. That’s a terrible heartache to carry.”
Barnard claims in a series of tweets, posted Tuesday night, that Polanski and Braun hired the private investigator solely to harass and pressure her.
She also says “trolls” on Twitter have started harassing her, and she’s supposedly traced them all to Poland, Polanski’s birth country.
Polanski has lived as a fugitive in Europe since pleading guilty in Los Angeles in 1977 to having sex with a minor. In April, a Los Angeles County judge denied Polanski’s latest effort to resolve the 40-year-old statutory rape case, saying that the filmmaker cannot be sentenced in absentia because he remains a fugitive from justice.
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Samantha Geimer was one of Polanski’s victims; she was a 13-year-old junior high student when Polanski, then 43, took her to actor Jack Nicholson’s house for a photo shoot. He gave her champagne and part of a Quaalude pill and, according to testimony from Geimer, forced her to have sex with him.
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After pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, Polanski was sent to a state prison for a 90-day diagnostic evaluation. Judge Laurence Rittenband, who was presiding over the case at the time, said the evaluation would help him reach a fair sentencing decision. The director was released after 42 days, with prison officials saying he did not need additional prison time.
Rittenband, facing fierce media pressure, went against the recommendation and decided to send Polanski back to prison for an additional 48 days.
Polanski then hopped a flight to Europe and never returned.
READ MORE: Roman Polanski accused of rape by a 4th woman
In August, a woman identified only by her first name, Robin, accused Polanski of “sexually victimizing” her in 1973, when she was 16 years old. In 2010, British actor Charlotte Lewis said Polanski sexually abused her at the same age: 16.
In an October interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the Zurich Film Festival, Polanski said he considered the Geimer case to be over and done with.
In total, five women have accused Polanski of sexual assault.
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