Left: YouTube screengrab from CW affiliate KTLA from Gloria Allred press conference with victim “Jane Doe” who accuses director Roman Polanski, right, of rape. Right: Director Roman Polanski during a photocall session of his film ‘D’apres une histoire vraie’ at the 70th Cannes International Film Festival. 05/27/2017. (Ekaterina Chesnokova/Sputnik via AP.)
Famed film director Roman Polanski will face civil trial this August in the United States in a lawsuit accusing him of giving alcohol to a 16-year-old girl before assaulting her at his home more than thirty years ago. raping her in his California home more than thirty years ago.
The civil trial is scheduled to start on Aug. 4, according to documents at the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The announcement was made during a press conference by the accuser’s attorney, Gloria Allred.
The lawsuit is related to a complaint filed against Polanski in the U.S. from a woman identified as Jane Doe.
Polanski’s lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told Law&Crime in an email on Wednesday that the director denies the allegations and believes the trial should happen in court.
His lawyer declined to estimate how long the trial may last.
In the late 1970s, Polanski fled the U.S. after admitting to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl and this is where the separate allegations come from. He has lived in Paris since then and that is where he was served with Jane Doe’s lawsuit.
According to local CW affiliate KTLA, during a press conference with Allred, Doe said the decision to sue the 90-year-old filmmaker had been delayed for a long time.
“It took me a really long time to file this suit against Mr. Polanski but I finally did make that decision and I decided I want to file it to obtain justice and accountability,” she said.
Allred stated that Polanski told her client when she was 16 that he “wanted to have sex with her” after giving her so much alcohol that she lost consciousness and fell asleep in his bed.
“Plaintiff though groggy alleges she told defendant ‘no’ and told him ‘please don’t do this,'” Allred said.
In addition to rape, Doe also alleges sexual battery and emotional distress.
Polanski is unlikely to appear at the trial. His fear that the judge would go back on an agreement led him to flee the U.S. in 1978, as reported by ABC affiliate WJLA .