NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Kevin Spacey requested a decide Friday to throw out actor Anthony Rapp’s intercourse abuse lawsuit, saying by means of his attorneys that allegations that he abused the then-teenage Rapp at a Eighties social gathering are false.
The attorneys wrote in papers filed in Manhattan federal courtroom that the alleged occasions Rapp described by no means occurred. Rapp has appeared in “Hire” on Broadway and in “Star Trek: Discovery” on tv.
He alleged in his lawsuit that he went to a celebration in 1986 at Spacey’s Manhattan dwelling, the place a 26-year-old Spacey, with out Rapp’s consent, “engaged in a sexual advance” by grabbing Rapp’s buttocks and lifting him onto a mattress and laying on his physique. Rapp claimed he “was compelled to extricate himself” earlier than leaving the social gathering.
Spacey’s attorneys argued the alleged encounter can’t qualify as sexual abuse beneath New York’s legal guidelines as a result of the one alleged contact with an “intimate” a part of the physique by Spacey was when his hand grazed the 14-year-old Rapp’s buttocks when the older actor picked him up. The attorneys mentioned Rapp “wriggled out” with no resistance throughout an encounter of lower than 30 seconds.
There was no different proof that might recommend any fleeting contact between Spacey’s hand and Rapp’s buttocks was for the aim of sexual gratification or to degrade or abuse Rapp, the attorneys wrote.
The dearth of proof means Rapp’s claims for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional misery should fail, the attorneys mentioned.
They mentioned Spacey “flatly denies” that any of what Rapp described passed off.
Attorneys for Rapp didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
When Rapp first spoke publicly of his declare in 2017, others went public too and Spacey’s then-celebrated career abruptly halted. On the time, Spacey issued a statement saying he didn’t keep in mind the encounter however apologized.
Spacey gained an Academy Award for Finest Actor for his position in “American Magnificence,” a 1999 movie through which he performed a pissed off suburban father who lusts after his daughter’s finest pal.
In current filings, Rapp’s attorneys have requested to switch the case to state courtroom, saying Spacey can’t show he has been dwelling in Maryland and qualifies for the variety of citizenship crucial to stay in federal courtroom.
In reality, they argue, he has been principally dwelling in London since 2003.
They mentioned he solely lived in Maryland when he was performing in his Emmy-winning position in “Home of Playing cards” from 2014 by means of 2017. He was fired from the present days after Rapp went public and former present staff claimed that Spacey made the manufacturing a “poisonous” office and one ex-employee alleged the actor sexually assaulted him.
In November, an arbitrator said Spacey and his manufacturing firms should pay the studio behind the Netflix political thriller $31 million due to losses they incurred after his firing.
Spacey appealed the choice to a panel of three extra personal arbitrators, who discovered for the plaintiffs, making the choice ultimate, and public.
A felony case introduced in opposition to him, an indecent assault and battery cost stemming from the alleged groping of an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort, was dismissed by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019.
