Kevin Spacey, an Oscar-winning actor, is currently on trial in New York for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy 36 years ago.
Anthony Rapp filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Spacey, alleging that the actor touched him indecently in 1986 at a party when he was only 14.
In the UK, Mr. Spacey, 63, is separately accused of five counts of sexual assault. The actor from House of Cards has refuted the accusations leveled against him.
The trial began on Thursday with jury selection, and Mr. Rapp, a 51-year-old actor, as well as Mr. Spacey, were present in the Manhattan federal courthouse.
According to Mr. Rapp, he first met Mr. Spacey at a party at his Manhattan apartment when he was about 26 or 27 years old.
Mr. Rapp claimed that Mr. Spacey had picked him up, laid him on a bed, and partially covered him in a Buzzfeed article from October 2017.
I was aware that he was attempting to have a sexual encounter with me, Mr. Rapp claimed.
In his lawsuit, the plaintiff claims that the alleged encounter lasted no longer than two minutes and that “no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothing, and no sexualized statements or innuendo” occurred.
The lawsuit, which claims Mr. Spacey, whose real name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, committed battery and purposeful infliction of emotional distress, was filed in September 2020.
Rapp reportedly wants $40 million (£35 million) in compensation.
Lewis A. Kaplan, the judge assigned to the case, previously dismissed a charge of sexual assault because the statute of limitations had run out.
Five years ago, one day after the Buzzfeed article was published, Mr. Spacey posted on social media that he had no recollection of what Mr. Rapp had described.
He wrote, “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior if I did behave then as he describes.
And I’m sorry about the emotions he claims to have carried for so long.
According to the news site Law & Crime, Mr. Spacey denied that the incident ever happened in a video deposition he recorded with attorneys in January.
He claimed that because “I am not interested in boys and I do not touch people inappropriately,” Mr. Rapp’s story “couldn’t have been true.”
Mr. Rapp, who previously appeared in the Broadway musical Rent, currently stars in Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+.
The actor was accused of groping an 18-year-old in a restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016. Separate sex assault charges against him collapsed in 2019 after the actor’s attorneys claimed the accuser had manipulated text messages on his phone.
A judge decided in August that Spacey must reimburse the House of Cards producers $31 million for the expenses they incurred as a result of letting him go from the show.
He pleaded not guilty in July in London to charges of sexually assaulting three men more than ten years ago. Beginning in June 2023, that trial is scheduled.
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