On August 10, 1977, Roman Polanski, a Polish-French film director noted for works such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974), was arrested by Los Angeles police on charges arising from an incident with a 13-year-old girl. The case began earlier that year when Polanski met the girl at Jack Nicholson’s home during a party. According to court filings and media reports from the time, the girl later attended a photo session where she and Polanski were alone; allegations that followed included unlawful sexual intercourse and other sexual offenses under California law. Polanski was charged with several counts, including rape by use of drugs, perversion, lewd and lascivious acts upon a child under 14, and procuring a child for the purposes of prostitution. The prosecution alleged that Polanski had given the girl alcohol and drugs before sexual activity. Polanski pleaded not guilty and, during pretrial proceedings, agreed in early 1978 to plead guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor as part of a plea bargain. That plea was to a charge often described in contemporaneous records as statutory rape (intercourse with a person under 16), although precise legal characterizations evolved during the negotiation and sentencing process. The case proceeded to sentencing hearings in 1978. Polanski had been placed on probation while awaiting sentencing and had spent time in the Los Angeles County Jail and at a psychiatric facility as part of pre-sentencing arrangements. Facing an uncertain sentencing outcome after indications from the judge that he might receive a harsher sentence than expected, Polanski fled the United States in February 1978, traveling to Europe. He did not return to face sentencing and has since lived primarily in France and elsewhere, where he is a citizen or longtime resident. The U.S. authorities have maintained an outstanding arrest warrant related to his 1977 case. The arrest and subsequent flight had immediate and long-term consequences. In the United States, Polanski’s films and legacy became the subject of intense public debate, legal maneuvering, and media scrutiny. The victim in the case later spoke publicly about the incident and the legal aftermath; her accounts and the settlement she reached with Polanski in the 1990s were reported in major news outlets. Legal actions and civil suits connected to the original case continued to surface in later decades. Internationally, Polanski continued to work, receiving film awards and festival recognition, while remaining a fugitive from U.S. prosecution. His arrest and the unresolved criminal case complicated efforts to travel to countries that might extradite him to the United States; notably, he was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 on the U.S. warrant but was not extradited. The case has remained a focal point in discussions about celebrity, accountability, the criminal justice system, and how societies address sexual crimes, particularly those involving minors. Accounts of the 1977 arrest and its aftermath are grounded in court records, contemporaneous reporting, and subsequent news coverage. Some details—such as precise legal labels used during plea negotiations and the sequence of pre-sentencing events—have been described differently in various sources; where descriptions diverge, reporting from primary court documents and major newspapers of the period provide the clearest contemporaneous record. The matter remains legally unresolved in the sense that Polanski did not return to the U.S. to be sentenced following his departure in 1978.