Accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in 1986, Kevin Spacey’s trial opens in New York

Kevin Spacey Fowler, 63, a two-time Oscar-winning stage, film and television actor has disappeared from screens and billboards since he was one of the first performers to be wiped out five years ago. global wave #Metoo, born in the United States.

His accuser is American actor Anthony Rapp, who stars in the series “Star Trek: Discovery” and turns 51 this month. He filed a September 2020 lawsuit against Mr. Spacey for anticipation and alleged sexual assault at a party in Manhattan in 1986.

Anthony Rapp was a 14-year-old teenager. Kevin Spacey then had double that.

World fame

Kevin Spacey, whose world fame has been building since the 1980s thanks to his characters in the films “American Beauty” and “The Usual Suspects” and the “House of Cards” series, has always denied allegations of sexual assault.

At the end of October 2017, when the #Metoo movement launched by women in the world of cinema brought down the untouchable producer Harvey Weinstein for the first time, Mr. Rapp first accused Mr. Spacey, in great detail, on the BuzzFeed News media.

The next day on Twitter, Kevin Spacey presents his “sincere apology” for his “drunk and deeply inappropriate (male) behavior”.

After his 2020 complaint, Anthony Rapp’s lawsuit is dismissed by the federal criminal court, but thrives in the civil sphere.

Kevin Spacey will then be tried from Thursday at 9:30 (13:30 GMT) by a popular jury of the Manhattan Federal Civil Court chaired by Judge Lewis Kaplan, 77.

“Impatient”

“Mr. Spacey will appear on Thursday and throughout the trial. We can’t wait for him to defend himself before an impartial jury,” his attorney Jennifer Keller told AFP in an email.

Before this civil jurisdiction, Kevin Spacey can be sentenced to substantial damages.

But Anthony Rapp’s initial “sexual assault” charge was ultimately not withheld by Judge Kaplan, the federal magistrate considering that this qualification could not cover prescribed facts and did not even fall within the scope of a child’s child. New York State of 2019. Protection Act.

However, Judge Kaplan acknowledges in his order that, during the New York party in 1986, “according to Mr. Rapp’s assertion, Mr. Fowler (Kevin Spacey, ed.) Had raised him, his hand had + scrubbed + the garment. which covered Mr. Rapp’s buttocks for a few seconds, then Mr. Fowler laid Mr. Rapp on a bed, on his back, before lying down fully clothed, briefly and partly on his side and on his Mr. Rapp “, who had only 14 years old.

“No kisses, no touching”

The teenager was therefore quickly “extirpated” and left the party, according to justice.

During his deposition, 35 years after the events, Anthony Rapp agreed that during an “exchange” that lasted no more than two years “there had been no” kissing, undressing, touching under clothes and no statements or insinuation of nature. sexual “. minutes.

Kevin Spacey has already had problems with the law in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In August, a California judge ordered him to pay nearly $ 31 million to the production company for the “House of Cards” series, from which he was sacked on sexual harassment charges.

Allegations he has always denied.

In London, he is prosecuted for sexually assaulting three men between March 2005 and April 2013, when he was a theater director, and for which he pleaded not guilty last July.

And in Massachusetts, Kevin Spacey was charged with indecent assault and sexual assault on an 18-year-old bar worker in July 2016. The charges dropped in July 2019.