In March 1977, filmmaker Roman Polanski lured a 13-year-old girl to the home of actor Jack Nicholson on the pretext of a photo shoot that might advance her career. The girl would later describe for a grand jury how she was drugged and plied with alcohol and then repeatedly sexually violated despite her crying and repeated protestations. In the course of raping her, Polanski even asked if she was on birth control.

Despite strong evidence and a credible witness against him, Polanski was allowed to plead down from the crimes of drug-induced rape and lewd acts upon a child under 14 to mere “unlawful sexual intercourse.” Still, he fled to France just hours before his sentence was to be handed down and has remained a fugitive ever since.