AFP, published Thursday 06 October 2022 at 4:23 pm
Five years after the #Metoo wave began, fallen star Kevin Spacey appears in civil proceedings in New York on Thursday in a lawsuit filed 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 relaxed and smiling, wearing a blue suit, white shirt and tie around 9:00 (1300 GMT) at the Federal Court in Manhattan, preceded by his accuser Anthony Rapp.
The civil trial began at around 9:30 am with the selection of the popular court jury presided over by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Before this civil jurisdiction, Kevin Spacey can be sentenced to large damages, Mr. Rapp asking for $ 40 million.
But Anthony Rapp’s initial “sexual assault” charge was ultimately not upheld by Judge Kaplan, due to facts deemed to be prescribed and outside the scope of New State law. York Child Protection Act 2019, which extends the statute of limitations.
Judge Kaplan upheld the allegation of “damaging the physical integrity” of Anthony Rapp by causing “emotional distress,” according to a June court document.
Double actor Oscar for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty”, Kevin Spacey Fowler with his full name, has disappeared from screens and tables since he was one of the first artists taken away five years ago, in October 2017, by the global wave #Metoo, born in the United States.
His accuser is the American actor Anthony Rapp, 51 years old at the end of October, who stars in particular in the series “Star Trek: Discovery”. 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.
– “Deeply moved” –
In late October 2017, at the start of the #MeToo movement, Mr. Rapp first accused Mr. Spacey, in great detail, in 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.
Judge Kaplan’s order specifies that at the 1986 New York party, “according to Mr. Rapp’s statement, Mr. Fowler (Kevin Spacey, ed) picked him up, his hand rubbed the garment for a few seconds. which covered 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 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.
Spacey’s attorney Jennifer Keller wrote in an email to AFP this week that the fallen actor’s defense was eager for him to “defend himself before an impartial jury.”
Kevin Spacey has already had problems with the law in the United States and the United Kingdom. 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.
