The latest case against the director of “The Pianist”, which involved an alleged sexual assault in 1973, was due to go to trial in a civil court in Los Angeles in August next year, but has been withdrawn, Polanski’s US lawyer told AFP.
The case was “resolved over the summer to the satisfaction of both parties and has now been formally dismissed,” Alexander Rufus-Isaacs said in an email.
The lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that Polanski took a then-teenager to dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1973. He allegedly gave her tequila and, when she began to feel dizzy, took her to his home, where the filmmaker would have forced her to have relations.
“She told him, ‘Please don’t do this,’” the plaintiff’s attorney, Gloria Allred, told reporters in March.
“She claims he ignored her requests. She also alleges that defendant Polanski removed plaintiff’s clothes and sexually assaulted her, causing her immense physical and emotional pain and suffering,” he added.
The civil suit, which sought to recover unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, shortly before the expiration of a California law that allowed an extended window for reporting against alleged perpetrators of sex crimes.
Court documents filed in California in July indicated that a “conditional” agreement had been reached.
The alleged victim’s lawyer did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on Tuesday.
Oscar winner Polanski, now 91, is a controversial figure: some in the film world extol his creative genius, while others insist he was always a sexual predator.
The director admitted raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a 1977 plea deal to avoid a trial on more serious charges.
However, he fled to France the following year after spending 42 days in prison when it appeared a judge was reconsidering his release.
Geimer later defended Polanski, and last year she was photographed with him.
In May this year, a French court acquitted Polanski in a defamation case against British actress Charlotte Lewis, after she accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.
The filmmaker has always denied the accusations.
*With AFP