Details of Polanski's 1977 rape

Sunday's L.A. Times carries a story by staffer Joe Mozingo going back over the evidence that Roman Polanski drugged and raped 13-year-old Samantha Gailey in 1977. The most detailed description of what occurred comes from Gailey's testimony before a grand jury two weeks after the incident at Jack Nicholson's house on Mulholland Drive. Polanski's autobiography acknowledges much of it, though he portrays the junior high girl as a willing and experienced partner.

There are some good sidelights in the story, including actress Anjelica Huston agreeing to testify against Polanski in exchange for the DA dropping a cocaine possession charge that resulted from the LAPD's search of Nicholson's home. She was his girlfriend at the time. Also, the psychiatrist, Dr. Alvin Davis, who said Polanski was too sensitive to be sent to prison gushed about Hollywood in the probation report:

Possibly not since Renaissance Italy has there been such a gathering of creative minds in one locale as there has been in Los Angeles County during the past half century. . . . While enriching the community with their presence, they have brought with them the manners and mores of their native lands which in rare instances have been at variance with those of their adoptive land.

There's also more about the lawsuity and settlement that appears to be behind Gailey, now known as Samantha Geimer, advocating for leniency toward Polanski.

Last month on LAO: Polanski arrested after DA issues warrant

Geimer in 2008 / New York Daily News