On Thursday, a civil trial begins in New York City in which actor Kevin Spacey is accused of sexually abusing at least one of his accusers as far back as the 1980s. This case has the potential to overshadow Spacey’s illustrious acting career, for which he has won two Academy Awards and a slew of other honors.
Anthony Rapp, star of the Broadway musical Rent, has accused the 63-year-old American actor of sexually assaulting him while they were both teenagers. Rapp made the allegations public five years ago.
A complaint filed by Rapp says that in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26 or 27, they had a sexual encounter at a party in Manhattan. Spacey’s true name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, and the trial is now underway.
Kevin Spacey Accused Of Sexual Abuse
According to court papers, Rapp’s accusations of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey were dropped in June because they were made too late, so the trial will center on her claims of violence and deliberate infliction of mental distress.
Rapp filed his claim in September 2020 seeking $40 million in punitive and compensatory damages, well inside the statute of limitations timeframe under New York’s Child Victims Act that permitted Virginia Giuffre to file her now-settled case against Britain’s Prince Andrew earlier this year. The accusations against Spacey are false, he says.
Three years after the 2017 BuzzFeed report in which Rapp alleged Spacey had sexually assaulted him in a Manhattan apartment while inebriated, Rapp filed a lawsuit against the actor.
After the report was published, Spacey released a statement on Twitter saying he had no recollection of the alleged encounter. If he had behaved in the way he claims, “I owe him the deepest apologies for what would have been highly inappropriate intoxicated conduct, and I am sorry for the sentiments he recounts having carried with him all these years,” he wrote.
