A lawsuit alleging him of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey has forced him to stand trial in New York’s federal court. Monday’s ruling by a judge was unanimous.
Anthony Rapp, an actor, filed the civil suit. Spacey Fowler was accused of climbing on top Rapp, in a bedroom at a New York party in 1986. Rapp claimed that he was only 14 at the time. Spacey would have turned 26 or 27 years old.
Rapp claimed that Spacey lifted him, that Mr. Fowler’s hands ‘grazed Mr. Rapps clothed buttocks’ for seconds, and that Mr. Fowler then placed Mr. Rapp back down on a bed and Mr. Fowler then briefly placed his clothed body partly beside and partially across Mr. Rapp,” according to U.S District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
According to the order, Rapp “wriggled out” of the room and fled.
Rapp stated at a deposition that there had been no kissing, undressing or reaching underclothes and no sexualized statements. According to the order, he stated that the encounter lasted less than two minutes.
Spacey, at 62, responded to the allegations with a 2017 tweet. He stated that he didn’t remember the alleged encounter.
Spacey wrote in part, “If I behaved then as he described, I owe to him the sincerest apology for what I would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour and I am sorry about the feelings he described having carried with me all these years.”
The judge stated that there was a genuine question of material facts about whether Mr. Fowler had forcibly touched Mr. Rapp’s “intimate parts.” The common law assault claim was dropped by the judge due to the statutes of limitations.
Kaplan ruled that Rapp can pursue his claims for battery and intentional infliction emotional distress.
Rapp and Spacey could not be reached immediately Tuesday to comment.
A man also filed a lawsuit against Spacey in 2019 alleging that the actor groped him at a bar. In 2017, former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh claimed that Spacey got her 18-year old son drunk and sexually assaulted them at a bar and restaurant on Nantucket, where the teen was a busboy. Spacey denied the accusations and pleaded guilty to the indecent assault charges and battery stemming out of the alleged assault.
Spacey is also facing allegations in the U.K. where detectives are authorized to accuse Spacey, 62 with four counts each of sexual assault against three males, according to the statement by the Metropolitan Police London on May 26.
The statement also stated that he faces the charge of “causing another person to engage in pernetrative sexual activities without consent”.
