AFP
Five years after the start of the #MeToo movement, actor Kevin Spacey appeared in court this Thursday (6) in New York, in a civil lawsuit filed by fellow actor Anthony Rapp, who accuses him of sexual assault when he was 14 years old. , in 1986.
The 63-year-old Hollywood actor arrived looking relaxed and smiling at around 9 am local time (10 am GMT) at Manhattan Federal Courthouse. The trial began around 9:30 am with the selection of the popular jury from the court presided over by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Spacey could be ordered to pay damages in significant amounts. Rapp asks for US$ 40 million (about R$ 208 million).
The initial charge of “sexual assault” made by Rapp, however, was not definitively upheld by Judge Kaplan. The president of the court considered that this classification could not cover facts already prescribed, in addition to not falling under a state law for the protection of minors of 2019.
The judge charged Spacey with the charge of “harm to physical integrity” of Rapp, who suffered “emotional distress” as a result of the abuse, according to a June court document.
The actor has had his worldwide fame built since the 1980s, thanks to his roles in films such as “American Beauty” and “The Usual Suspects”, and in his most recent work in the series “House of Cards”. He disappeared from the screens and stages as one of the first celebrities swept away by the global wave of #MeToo, which originated in the United States.
His accuser, Anthony Rapp, starred in the series “Star Trek: Discovery” and is about to turn 51 this month. In September 2020, Rapp filed a complaint against Spacey for alleged innuendo and sexual assault during a party in Manhattan 36 years ago.
“DEEPLY INAPPROPRIATE”
In late October 2017, Rapp first accused Spacey in detail in statements to BuzzFeed News. A day after Rapp’s complaint, Spacey offered his “most sincere apologies” for his “drunken and deeply inappropriate behavior”.
After the complaint in 2020, Rapp’s case was filed in federal criminal court but progressed in the civil sphere.
The magistrate acknowledged that at the New York party in 1986, “according to Rapp’s testimony, Spacey lifted him up and ‘rubbed’ his hand for a few seconds on the clothing that covered Rapp’s buttocks. Soon after, Spacey placed Rapp in bed, on his back, and then lay fully clothed, briefly and partially on top of Rapp”, aged just 14.
However, the teenager quickly “escaped” and walked away from the party, according to the court. Rapp acknowledged that “there were no kisses or nudity, no touching inside clothes, no sexual statements or innuendo” in his statement 35 years later.
“We hope he can defend himself before an impartial jury,” his attorney, Jennifer Keller, said by email. The accused has already had problems with justice in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
In August, a California judge ordered Spacey to pay nearly $31 million to the producer of the series “House of Cards”, from which he had been fired after allegations of sexual harassment, which he has always denied.
In London, he is tried for sexual assaults against three men, between March 2005 and April 2013, when he was a theater director. He pleaded not guilty in July.
In Massachusetts, Spacey had been charged with indecent assault and sexual assault on an 18-year-old bar worker in July 2016. The charges were dropped in July 2019.
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