There’s at least one person who’s thrilled that Roman Polanski hasn’t been extradited to the United States over 38-year-old statutory-rape charges — the victim.
Samantha Geimer called LA prosecutors’ continuing effort by to lock up Polanski for the 1977 attack on her a “travesty” — and said she just wants the whole legal saga to end so she can finally stop being dragged through the press, according to a report.
Geimer, 52 — who was 13 at the time of the sexual assault — said her main reaction was “relief” to news last week that a Polish judge declined to send the “Chinatown” director to the US.
“I believe they did the right thing and made the right decision, given all the facts,” she said in an interview. “Since I’m well aware of how long this has been going on, I’m very pleased and happy.”
She said she is tired of the exposure in the media.
“Everyone wants to use the most sensational words they can,” she said in a telephone interview. “It’s unpleasant to be talked about in those terms.”
She thinks prosecutors in Los Angeles are pursuing Polanski for publicity.
“It’s a joke. A travesty,” she said. “Hollywood justice at its finest.”
Geimer — who settled a lawsuit with Polanski over the attack for more than $500,000 in the early 1990s — says she has come to feel sympathetic toward him.
“He said he did it; he pled guilty; he went to jail. I don’t know what people want from him,” she said.
“I’m sure he’s a nice man and I know he has a family and I think he deserves closure and to be allowed to put this behind him.”
Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in 1977 for molesting Geimer during a 1977 photo shoot, in which he gave her champagne and drugs, took some topless photos and had sex with her.
He did 42 days in jail before being released. He then fled the country in fear that a judge would reject a plea deal and lock him up again.
Polanski apologized to Geimer in a 2011 documentary — and Geimer says she thinks he is sincere. She even sees herself as one of his supporters.
“We somehow ended up on the same side,” she explained. “Things have to go pretty wrong for them to end up this way.”
This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.
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