A federal judge dismissed part of a $40 million lawsuit against Kevin Spacey on Monday, right after that actor Anthony Rappe completed his case arguing that a singer A sexually assaulted him when he was a teenager.
The dismissal of Rapp’s claim of willful mental distress marks a major blow to the highly publicized civil case against Spacey. It also signaled another legitimate victory for Dealer actor, who has been accused by at least a dozen people of sexual assault or misconduct.
Manhattan federal judge, Lewis Kaplan, ruled that Rapp had only one outstanding battery claim against Spacey in his $40 million lawsuit after Spacey’s attorneys asked for his dismissal. total. Spacey’s attorneys argued that Rapp’s team improperly used the New York Child Victims Act to try to hold the actor accountable for Rapp’s claims – stressing that there was no license evidence that the alleged encounter was “for sexual gratification”.
Kaplan concluded that the intentional distressing of the statement essentially echoes Rapp’s allegation of batteries against the 63-year-old actor. But he said he wouldn’t skip charging the battery.
“I don’t say one way or the other. I’m just saying I’m not going to grant that right now,” Kaplan said.
Spacey’s team began their defense case Monday, beginning with video footage from another actor, John Barrowman. Spacey himself was prepared to take a stance Monday afternoon.
In a civil lawsuit filed in 2020, Rapp said Spacey sexually assaulted him after a party in Manhattan in 1986, when he was 14 years old. On the stand, Rapp said that Spacey invited him to a party at his Upper East Side apartment after the two had previously had a night out with Barrowman. At the party, Rapp said, he felt uncomfortable around too many adults and went into Spacey’s bedroom to watch TV.
Suddenly, Rapp said, a drunken-looking Spacey was “standing in the doorway,” and then lifted him “like a groom carrying a bride across the threshold.” Rapp said Spacey then climbed on top of him and pressed his pelvis into the teen’s hip.
“It feels so wrong,” Rapp said in the stands. “I don’t want him to do it, and I have no reason to explain why he would do it. I feel like a deer in headlights.”
Rapp first detailed his allegations in a bomb blast in 2017 Buzzfeed article, after which several others accused Spacey of misconduct. Despite claims that date back decades, he has evaded criminal charges in the United States as two potential prosecutions have collapsed and one accuser has died.
Previously in Rapp’s civil case, Kaplan sued a second plaintiff after he refused to reveal his identity. Spacey faces only one criminal case, in the United Kingdom.
