Five years after the start of the #Metoo surge, fallen star Kevin Spacey appears in civil proceedings in New York on Thursday in a lawsuit brought by American actor Anthony Rapp, who accuses him of sexual assault when he was 14 in 1986 .
The 63-year-old former Hollywood star arrived looking relaxed and smiling, wearing a blue suit, white shirt and tie around 9 a.m. at federal court in Manhattan, preceded by his accuser Anthony Rapp.
The civil trial began around 9:30 a.m. with the selection of the popular jury of the court presided over by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Read alsoKevin Spacey owes House of Cards
producers $31 million
Before this civil court, Kevin Spacey can be sentenced to significant damages, Anthony Rapp asking for 40 million dollars.
But the initial charge of "
sexual assault
" brought by Anthony Rapp was ultimately not accepted by Judge Kaplan, due to facts considered to be prescribed and not falling within the scope of a law of the State of New York Child Protection Act 2019, which extends the statute of limitations.
Judge Kaplan upheld the charge of "
harming the bodily integrity
" of Anthony Rapp causing "
emotional distress
", according to a court document from June.
Double Oscar-winning actor for
Usual Suspects
and
American Beauty
, Kevin Spacey Fowler by his full name, has disappeared from screens and boards since he was one of the first artists swept away five years ago, in October 2017, by the wave world #Metoo, born in the United States.
His accuser is American actor Anthony Rapp, 51 at the end of October, who notably plays in the series “
Star Trek: Discovery
”.
He had filed a complaint in September 2020 against Mr. Spacey for advances and an alleged sexual assault at a party in Manhattan in 1986. Anthony Rapp was a 14-year-old teenager.
Kevin Spacey then had double that.
Accusations and apologies in 2017
At the end of October 2017, at the beginning of the #MeToo movement, Mr. Rapp accused Mr. Spacey for the first time, in great detail, in the media BuzzFeed News.
The next day on Twitter, Kevin Spacey presents his "
sincere apologies
" to him for his "
drunk and deeply inappropriate (man) behavior
".
After his 2020 complaint, Anthony Rapp's lawsuit is dropped in federal criminal court, but it's thriving in civil.
Judge Kaplan's order details that at the 1986 New York party, "
according to Mr. Rapp's assertion, Mr. Fowler (Kevin Spacey, editor's note) picked him up, his hand rubbed a few seconds the garment covering Mr. Rapp's buttocks, then Mr. Fowler put Mr. Rapp on a bed, on his back, before lying down fully clothed, briefly and partly to the side and on top of Mr. Rapp
”.
The teenager then quickly "
extirpated
" and left the party, according to justice.
During his deposition, 35 years after the events, Anthony Rapp agreed that there had been “
no kissing, no undressing, no touching under clothing and no statements or insinuations of a sexual nature
” during an “
exchange
which hadn't lasted more than two minutes.
Mr. Spacey's lawyer, Jennifer Keller, wrote in an email to AFP this week that the defense of the fallen actor was eager for him to "
defend himself before an impartial jury
".
Kevin Spacey has already had run-ins with the law in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In London, he is being prosecuted for sexual assaults on three men between March 2005 and April 2013, when he was a theater director, and for which he pleaded not guilty last July.