Samantha Geimer: Civil Suit, Memoir, and Push to End the Case

Samantha Geimer is the woman Roman Polanski drugged and raped in 1977, when she was thirteen years old and still using her birth name, Samantha Gailey. Born in 1963, she has spent most of her adult life publicly asking for the case against Polanski to end, arguing that the legal process and media attention have caused her more lasting harm than the assault itself. Polanski fled the United States before sentencing and remains a fugitive.

What Happened in 1977

On March 10, 1977, Polanski, then 43, picked up the thirteen-year-old Gailey for what her mother believed would be a professional photo shoot for a French magazine. The session took place at Jack Nicholson’s Mulholland Drive home. Nicholson was not there.¹ Polanski gave her champagne and part of a Quaalude, then forced her into oral, vaginal, and anal sex in a whirlpool bath, ignoring her repeated objections.² In grand jury testimony later that month, she recalled saying “No” and “Stop it,” and said she was afraid to physically resist. Afterward, she testified, Polanski told her, “Don’t tell your mother about this.”

Polanski was arrested the next day. On March 24, 1977, a grand jury indicted him on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, sodomy, lewd act on a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.³²

The Plea, the Judge, and Polanski’s Flight

The case never went to trial. In August 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, the least serious of the six charges, and the other five were dismissed. Geimer’s attorney, Lawrence Silver, had pushed for the deal to spare his young client a public trial, and Geimer herself had refused to testify in open court.²⁴

Judge Laurence Rittenband ordered a 90-day psychiatric evaluation at Chino State Prison. Polanski was released after 42 days, with prison officials recommending probation.³⁴⁵ Gunson drafted a 20-page affidavit to have Rittenband disqualified, but his supervisors refused to let him file it.⁶

On January 31, 1978, the day before a hearing at which Rittenband was expected to impose more prison time, Polanski flew to Paris. He holds French citizenship, and France does not extradite its own nationals.³⁷⁸ The transcript, released July 17, 2022, confirmed that Rittenband had held improper private conversations about the case and reneged on sentencing promises. Gunson testified that without the plea deal being honored, Polanski could have faced 20 to 50 years in prison.⁹

Her Civil Lawsuit

In December 1988, at age 25, Geimer filed a civil suit against Polanski alleging sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress, and seduction. The case moved through the California courts for five years before Polanski agreed in October 1993 to pay $500,000. Whether she ever received the full amount is unclear. Court records from the last filing in August 1996 showed Polanski owed her $604,416, including accrued interest.¹⁰

Her Push to End the Criminal Case

For years, Geimer has publicly asked the court to close the criminal case. Her reasons are personal. She has said she forgave Polanski long ago and that each fresh legal or media cycle causes her more harm than the crime did.

In June 2017, she appeared before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon to formally request that the case be terminated, calling it “an act of mercy to myself and my family.” Gordon denied the request in August 2017, ruling that Polanski remained a “fugitive from justice” who “refuses to comply with court orders,” and that the court could not dismiss the case “merely because it would be in the victim’s best interest.”¹¹ Gordon had denied a similar request from Polanski’s own legal team that April.¹²

An earlier 2009 court filing by Silver had framed the argument in constitutional terms, contending that Geimer, as a crime victim, was entitled to “finality” under California law. Silver reported receiving nearly 500 media inquiries after Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland that year, and said the resulting attention caused Geimer “health-related issues” and threatened her employment.¹³

What She Has Said About the Case

Geimer has been unusually direct in aiming her frustration at the institutions that were supposed to help her. She has said giving grand jury testimony was worse than the assault, and that the decades-long pursuit of Polanski “harmed his victim more than the film director ever did.” She has told interviewers, “You shouldn’t be damaged more by the court than by the crime.”¹⁴

On the coverage itself, she wrote ahead of her memoir: “I am more than ‘sex victim girl,’ a tag the media pinned on me. I’ve been dogged by tired thinking and easy tags nearly my entire life.”¹⁵ She has separately described the 1977 media coverage as “much more traumatizing than what happened with Polanski.”¹⁶

During the #MeToo era, her position put her at odds with much of the public conversation. In 2018 she said, “I think if you’re a victim of sexual assault or a crime, do what you decide to do. Come forward, don’t come forward. Speak out about it, don’t speak out about it. It’s individual.”¹⁷ In a 2023 interview she went further: “What happened with Polanski was never a big problem for me. The fact that we’ve made this thing up weighs on me terribly. To have to constantly repeat that it wasn’t a big deal, it’s a terrible burden.” She criticized attorney Gloria Allred in the same interview, saying Allred “just diminishes women to exploit their pain.”¹⁸

She has also acknowledged how alone she was in 1977: “No one came to stand by my side and say: ‘Hey, you know what? I think she’s telling the truth because something similar happened to me.’ And now, now that they have an urgent need to unpack everything? Who are they kidding?”¹⁸

Her Memoir and the Coming Film

Simon & Schuster published Geimer’s memoir, The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, in September 2013. She co-wrote the 272-page book with journalist Judith Newman, with contributions from Silver.¹⁹ It covers the assault, the legal aftermath, and her later life as a wife and mother. The Guardian called it “a frank, convincing book, more shocking in its straightforwardness and apparent good humour than a more obviously manipulative account.”²⁰

The memoir defends Geimer’s mother, Susan Gailey, who had been widely blamed for allowing her daughter to go on the shoot. Geimer frames her mother as a product of 1970s permissive culture rather than as negligent. The book also revealed that Polanski sent Geimer an emailed apology in 2009: “They should give your mother a break! The fault was mine, not your mother’s.”²¹ She has described sporadic email contact with him as “personal stuff” rather than anything like a friendship.²⁰

A feature adaptation, also titled The Girl, was announced in early 2026. Directed by French-American filmmaker Marina Ziolkowski, it is a France-Belgium-Italy co-production with filming set in California. Ziolkowski, a César-nominated short film director making her feature debut, said the film is told “entirely through Samantha’s memories and inner life” and added, “This film is not about Roman Polanski; it is about returning Samantha’s story to her.” Geimer said she “never imagined it could be transformed into something beautiful.”²²

Where Things Stand

Geimer married a man named Dave and had three sons. Her family lived for years in Hawaii, partly to escape the coverage, and by 2013 she had relocated to Nevada. After high school she attended legal secretary school and later ran a home day-care center.²³

Polanski remains a fugitive. His Los Angeles criminal case has never been formally resolved, and an international arrest warrant remains active. A separate 2023 civil lawsuit, filed by a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” and alleging a 1973 rape when she was 16, is not Geimer’s case; that suit settled in the summer of 2024 on undisclosed terms, and Polanski denied the allegations.²⁴²⁵

Geimer’s own position has not changed. She has argued, publicly and repeatedly, that Polanski should receive credit for time served and that the case should end. As she put it in her memoir: “There comes a time when you need to let it go, unless you don’t want to. And then, in a sense, it’s your problem.”²⁶

1
CBS News. Roman Polanski Victim Testimony: I Was Ready to Cry
2
Los Angeles Times. Grand Jury Testimony in the Polanski Case
3
Courthouse News Service. Polanski Case: What We Know After 40 Years
4
Los Angeles Times. Judge Planned to Renege on Roman Polanski Plea Deal
5
Sky News. Roman Polanski Fled US 44 Years Ago as Judge Planned to Renege on Plea Deal
6
Courthouse News Service. Unsealed: Roman Polanski Prosecutor Thwarted in Bid to Disqualify Judge
7
Hollywood Reporter. L.A. District Attorney Won’t Oppose Roman Polanski’s Effort to Unseal Testimony
8
Spectrum News. Gascón Says Transcripts Should Be Unsealed in Roman Polanski Case
9
Variety. Roman Polanski Transcript: Roger Gunson Testimony
10
CBS News. Polanski Agreed to $500,000 Payment in Civil Suit
11
The Guardian. Roman Polanski: Judge Rejects Request From Victim to Dismiss Case
12
New York Times. Judge Denies Request to Drop Roman Polanski’s Sexual Abuse Case
13
CBS News. Polanski Victim: I Want to Be Left Alone
14
ABC News. Roman Polanski’s Victim Samantha Geimer Speaks
15
The Guardian. Roman Polanski Victim to Publish Memoir
16
Mashable. Roman Polanski Rape Survivor Samantha Geimer Responds to Quentin Tarantino
17
Hollywood Reporter. Roman Polanski Rape Victim Samantha Geimer Says Tarantino Remarks Were Misconstrued
18
Deadline. Roman Polanski Rape Victim Samantha Geimer: No Problem, No Support for #MeToo Movement
19
Simon & Schuster. The Girl by Samantha Geimer
20
The Guardian. Samantha Geimer on Roman Polanski
21
NPR. Abused by Both Polanski and Media, The Girl Moves On
22
Deadline. Roman Polanski Samantha Geimer Memoir The Girl Movie
23
Los Angeles Times. Geimer Book Interview
24
New York Times. Roman Polanski Rape Lawsuit Settlement
25
Los Angeles Times. Civil Suit Against Roman Polanski Alleging 1973 Child Rape Won’t Go to Trial
26
New York Times. The Girl by Samantha Geimer