Photo: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP / Getty Images
SANTA MONICA (CNS) - Longtime fugitive Roman Polanski has swapped one prominent entertainment attorney for another in his legal defense against a woman's accusation that the director sexually assaulted her in the 1970s at his home after plying her with tequila both there and at a restaurant, all the while knowing she was a minor.
In court papers filed Tuesday with Santa Monica Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford III, the 90-year-old filmmaker substituted out Neville Johnson and has brought in lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs. No reason for the change was divulged in the court papers.
Johnson's celebrity clients have included Sylvester Stallone, John Lennon, Michelle Phillips, Jack Klugman, Richard Dreyfuss, Mike Connors, Rick Nelson, P.F. Sloan, members of Earth, Wind and Fire, Mitch Ryder and Lloyd Price.
Rufus-Isaacs represents producers, financiers, distributors, managers, agents and talent in music, film, television and digital distribution. He was the attorney for chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili in a defamation lawsuit filed against Netflix. She alleged a line in the fictional series, "The Queen*s Gambit," falsely stated she had not competed against men. The federal court case was settled before trial.
The plaintiff in the suit is identified only as Jane Doe. In previous court papers, Johnson cited multiple defenses on behalf of Polanski, including violation of the statute of limitations, that the plaintiff's damages are based on guesswork, speculation and conjecture and that the woman accuses Polanski of a crime, sexual battery, that did not become law until 1990.
The court papers asked that plaintiff Jane Doe's case be dismissed "with prejudice" -- meaning it could not be refiled -- and that the plaintiff "take nothing" from Polanski.
According to the suit filed June 16 and amended July 11, Doe met Polanski at a party in 1973. The alleged encounter occurred four years before the director fled the U.S. after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor involving a different victim, Samantha Geimer.
Months later, Doe accepted Polanksi's invitation to dinner and she met him beforehand at his Benedict Canyon home, where he gave her two shots of tequila while aware that she was underage, the suit states.
Polanski later drove the pair to dinner at Le Restaurant, located on La Cienega Boulevard, the suit states. Their table was not ready when they arrived, so they went to the bar and Polanski ordered more tequila for Doe, the suit states.
After being seated for dinner, but before they ate, Doe began experiencing dizziness from the tequila and went to the restroom feeling ill, the suit states. When she returned to the table, she told Polanski she didn't feel well and was going outside to get fresh air, according to the suit, which further states that the director followed Doe outside and drove her back to his house.
Although Doe does not remember how she got from the car into Polanski's home, she does recall him leading her to his bedroom and that she passed out on his bed, the suit states. Doe remembers awakening to find Polanski in the bed next to her and that she declined his request to have sex with her, the suit states.
Ignoring her plea of "Please don't do this," he removed her clothes and sexually assaulted her, causing her "tremendous physical and emotional pain and suffering," the suit alleges.
Polanski later drove Doe home and that was the last time she saw him, the suit states.
A case management conference in the lawsuit is scheduled March 8.