() –– Kevin Spacey returned to court Thursday to attend jury selection in the civil lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp.
Rapp, known for his role on “Star Trek: Discovery,” sued Spacey in 2020 for assault, battery and intentional emotional distress.
Rapp publicly stated publicly for the first time in 2017 that Spacey made a sexual advance on him in 1986, when he was 14 and the two were performing in Broadway shows.
The demand accuses Spacey of groping Rapp’s buttocks and putting the then-teenager on a bed and placing his body partially on top of Rapp’s.
Spacey publicly apologized shortly after Rapp’s remarks. At the time he tweeted that he was “beyond horrified to hear his story” and claimed he had no recollection of the incident.
“…If I behaved as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken conduct. And I am sorry for the feelings he describes carrying with him all these years,” Spacey wrote in a tweet. back then.
Chase Scolnick, Spacey’s attorney, said in a statement to that he hopes the trial will vindicate his client.
“We hope that Mr. Rapp’s claims will be tried before an impartial jury, rather than on social media. And we hope that Mr. Spacey will be vindicated,” Scolnick said.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan will preside over the trial.
Spacey’s other legal troubles
In 2017, the Me Too movement began encouraging sexual assault survivors to speak publicly about their claims of abuse by powerful figures. And stories about Spacey’s alleged misconduct began to surface.
A Massachusetts man has claimed Spacey groped him when he was an 18-year-old busboy at a Nantucket restaurant. A criminal complaint alleges the busboy told police Spacey bought him alcoholic beverages and allegedly unbuttoned his pants and rubbed his penis, both inside and outside his pants, for about three minutes.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped the criminal case against Spacey after the whistleblower pleaded Fifth Amendment on the witness stand after being questioned about his missing cell phone and deleting text messages. .
In addition to the civil trial in Manhattan, Spacey also faces criminal charges in England.
In May, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service charged the actor with four counts of sexual assault against three men and one count of causing a person to engage in nonconsensual penetrative sexual activity.
The charges relate to two alleged incidents that occurred in London during 2005, another two in 2008 and another in Gloucestershire, west of England, in 2013. The alleged victim of the 2005 incidents is now 40 years old, while the two The men allegedly involved in the 2008 and 2013 incidents are now around 30, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Spacey’s career collapses
A investigation in 2017 revealed that several members and former members of the production of the Netflix series “House of Cards” claimed that Spacey harassed them. Shortly after publication, Netflix cut ties with the actor.
In December 2018, Spacey posted a video on his Twitter account in which he spoke as his “House of Cards” character, Frank Underwood. The character was killed off in the series after Spacey’s firing.
“Of course, some believed it all and have been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all,” the actor said in the character’s southern accent. “They are dying for me to declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. Wouldn’t it be easy if everything was so simple? Only you and I know that it is not that simple, neither in politics nor in life.
“But you wouldn’t believe the worst without proof, would you? You wouldn’t be too quick to judge without facts, would you?” she continued.
Last year, Spacey was ordered to pay nearly $31 million to Media Rights Capital, the production company behind the show.
The actor was chosen for the Italian film The Man Who Drew Godhis first project since the allegations surfaced in 2017, which is currently in post-production, according to Imdb.
