NEW YORK (Washington Insider Magazine)- The civil lawsuit of Kevin Spacey, the Oscar-winning actor accused of sexual abuse at a party in New York City in 1986 when Rapp was 14 years old, is scheduled to begin jury selection on Thursday morning.
The trial officially comes over 5 years after Rapp originally made his accusations public. Spacey has refuted them. According to court documents, Rapp claims that Spacey groped his buttocks, lifted him onto a bed, and momentarily laid down on him until Rapp “wriggled out.”
In an article from October 2017, Rapp stated to BuzzFeed News, “He was trying to seduce me.”
Spacey, who would have been 26 or 27 years old in 1986, claimed he did not remember the alleged encounter in a tweet sent out the day after the BuzzFeed story was published.
In the early stages of the #MeToo movement, Rapp, 50, was one of the first to accuse Spacey, 63, of sexual misconduct. The allegations abruptly ended Spacey’s career in the entertainment business.
The Southern District of New York U.S. District Court will host Spacey’s trial in the heart of Manhattan. According to NBC NEWS, the judge in the case is Lewis A. Kaplan, who has presided over high-profile trials involving mobsters from New York City and prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
Rapp is anticipated to testify following the formal start of the trial. He now stars in the Star Trek: Discovery TV series on Paramount+. He is also well-known for his roles in “Dazed and Confused” and the original Broadway production of “Rent.”
Rapp’s allegations of battery and deliberate infliction of emotional distress will be the focus of the trial. According to a court filing submitted in June, Kaplan rejected a sexual assault allegation Rapp made because he filed it too late.
Rapp is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages.
The legal difficulties for Spacey go far beyond the New York case.
He is accused of sexually abusing 3 men over ten years ago in the UK. At a hearing in July at London’s Central Criminal Court, he entered a not-guilty plea.
The Associated Press reports that his trial is scheduled to begin in the U.K. on June 6, 2023.
Separately, a Los Angeles judge decided in August that Spacey and his businesses must make up almost $31 million in losses to the makers of Netflix’s “House of Cards” as a result of his termination for allegedly harassing crew members.
Spacey, who played the sinister fictional president Frank Underwood, rejects the claims of sexual harassment.
Spacey’s co-star Robin Wright took up the lead role for the sixth and final season of the show when his character was killed off.
For the movies “American Beauty” and “The Usual Suspects,” Spacey received Academy Awards.
