Woman at centre of Polanski sex scandal writing memoir

New York:  The woman who as a teenager was at the center of director Roman Polanski’s 1977 Hollywood sex scandal will tell her story in a forthcoming book, her publisher said on Tuesday. Samantha Geimer, 47, is writing THE GIRL: Emerging from the Shadow of Roman Polanski, due to be published in fall 2013, A t ria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, said in a press statement. “I offer my story now without rage, but with purpose - to share a tale that in its detail will reclaim my identity,” Geimer said in the statement, adding “I am more than ‘Sex Victim Girl.’” [caption id=“attachment_485335” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Getty Images.[/caption] Polanski, now 79, who directed such films as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” was arrested in Los Angeles in 1977 and indicted on six counts including the rape of Geimer, who was 13 at the time. He accepted a plea bargain of guilty to a single count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, but fled the United States when he suspected the judge in the case was intent on giving him jail time beyond the time he had already served. In later years, Geimer sued Polanski for sexual assault and emotional distress, and they eventually settled the lawsuit. The three-decade-old case took another turn in 2009 when the Oscar-winning director of Holocaust drama “The Pianist” was arrested in Switzerland at the behest of U.S. authorities. He fought extradition to Los Angeles and won, and returned to his home in France. Geimer’s attorney in the case, Lawrence Silver, will also contribute to the book, Atria said. “Writing this book will finally lay to rest many ghosts from those years, and answer many questions that have remained unresolved,” Atria Books publisher Judith Curr said. In a documentary about him last year, Polanski apologized to Geimer, saying that she was both his victim and a victim of the press. Polanski has continued to direct films, including the thriller “The Ghost Writer” and “Carnage,” which starred Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster and was released in 2011. Reuters