Mardi 29 septembre 2009
Affaire Polanski :
le témoignage de Samantha Geimer, violée à 13 ans :
« Je n’ai pas de rancoeur envers lui »
Propos recueillis par le Los Angeles Times, traduits par Cyriel Martin
« Quand je repense à tout ça, il ne fait aucun doute que ce qu’il a fait était horrible. C’était une chose horrible à faire à une petite fille. Mais c’était aussi il y a 26 ans (son témoignage remonte à 2003), et honnêtement, la publicité qui entoure cette affaire m’a tellement traumatisée que ce qu’il [Polanski] m’a fait me semble pâle en comparaison (…). Je n’ai pas de rancoeur envers lui, ni aucune sympathie non plus. C’est un étranger pour moi (…) Mon attitude surprend de nombreuses personnes. C’est parce qu’ils n’ont pas dû affronter tout cela. Ils ne savent pas tout ce que je sais (…). »
« Les gens ne savent pas avec quelle injustice j’ai été traitée par la presse. Je me suis sentie violée ! Les médias m’ont fait vivre un enfer, et j’essaie de mettre tout ça derrière moi. Aujourd’hui, je suis très heureuse dans ma vie. J’ai trois enfants et un mari. Je vis dans un endroit magnifique et j’aime mon travail. Que pourrais-je demander de plus ? Personne ne doit s’inquiéter pour moi. La seule chose qui m’inquiète, c’est que ce qui m’est arrivé en 1977 continue à arriver à des filles tous les jours. Mais si les gens s’intéressent à moi, c’est parce que M. Polanski est une célébrité. Je ne trouve pas ça juste. Il y a certainement d’autres personnes à qui cela pourrait vraiment servir. »
Judge the Mov
ie, Not the Man Roman Polanski’s 25-year-old crimes should not damage his chances for an Oscar, his victim says.
I met Roman Polanski in 1977, when I was 13 years old. I was in ninth grade that year, when he told my mother that he wanted to shoot pictures of me for a French magazine. That’s what he said, but instead, after shooting pictures of me at Jack Nicholson’s house on Mulholland Drive, he did something quite different. He gave me champagne and a piece of a Quaalude. And then he took advantage of me.
It was not consensual sex by any means. I said no, repeatedly, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was alone and I didn’t know what to do. It was scary and, looking back, very creepy. Those may sound like kindergarten words, but that’s the way it feels to me. It was a very long time ago, and it is hard to remember exactly the way everything happened. But I’ve had to repeat the story so many times, I know it by heart.
We pressed charges, and he pleaded guilty. A plea bargain was agreed to by his lawyer, my lawyer and the district attorney, and it was approved by the judge. But to our amazement, at the last minute the judge went back on his word and refused to honor the deal.
Worried that he was going to have to spend 50 years in prison — rather than just time already served — Mr. Polanski fled the country. He’s never been back, and I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since.
Looking back, there can be no question that he did something awful. It was a terrible thing to do to a young girl. But it was also 25 years ago — 26 years next month. And, honestly, the publicity surrounding it was so traumatic that what he did to me seemed to pale in comparison.
Now that he’s been nominated for an Academy Award, it’s all being reopened. I’m being asked: Should he be given the award? Should he be rewarded for his behavior? Should he be allowed back into the United States after fleeing 25 years ago?
Here’s the way I feel about it: I don’t really have any hard feelings toward him, or any sympathy, either. He is a stranger to me.
But I believe that Mr. Polanski and his film should be honored according to the quality of the work. What he does for a living and how good he is at it have nothing to do with me or what he did to me. I don’t think it would be fair to take past events into consideration. I think that the academy members should vote for the movies they feel deserve it. Not for people they feel are popular.
And should he come back? I have to imagine he would rather not be a fugitive and be able to travel freely. Personally, I would like to see that happen. He never should have been put in the position that led him to flee. He should have received a sentence of time served 25 years ago, just as we all agreed. At that time, my lawyer, Lawrence Silver, wrote to the judge that the plea agreement should be accepted and that that guilty plea would be sufficient contrition to satisfy us. I have not changed my mind.
I know there is a price to pay for running. But who wouldn’t think about running when facing a 50-year sentence from a judge who was clearly more interested in his own reputation than a fair judgment or even the well-being of the victim?
If he could resolve his problems, I’d be happy. I hope that would mean I’d never have to talk about this again. Sometimes I feel like we both got a life sentence.
My attitude surprises many people. That’s because they didn’t go through it all; they don’t know everything that I know. People don’t understand that the judge went back on his word. They don’t know how unfairly we were all treated by the press. Talk about feeling violated! The media made that year a living hell, and I’ve been trying to put it behind me ever since.
Today, I am very happy with my life. I have three sons and a husband. I live in a beautiful place and I enjoy my work. What more could I ask for? No one needs to worry about me.
The one thing that bothers me is that what happened to me in 1977 continues to happen to girls every day, yet people are interested in me because Mr. Polanski is a celebrity. That just never seems right to me. It makes me feel guilty that this attention is directed at me, when there are certainly others out there who could really use it.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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