Sophia Michaels
Over two years after actor Anthony Rapp first filed a civil lawsuit against Kevin Spacey over an alleged sexual assault that occurred in 1986, opening statements in the trial took place Thursday in a Manhattan courtroom.
“What happened to Anthony is something that never should have happened,” Rapp’s lawyer Peter J. Saghir said during his opening statement. “The conduct here involved a 14-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man.”
Rapp, the first person to accuse Spacey of sexual misconduct in October 2017, alleged that Spacey groped his buttocks and forced himself on him during a party in 1986. Rapp filed their claim under New York’s Child Victims Act, which allows victims of childhood abuse to bring lawsuits over such crimes even after they’ve fallen outside the statute of limitations.
Rapp initially sued Spacey for assault, battery, and causing emotional distress, and while a judge dismissed the assault claim during the lengthy pre-trial proceedings, Spacey’s attempts to have the lawsuit itself terminated were denied in March 2022.
During their opening statement, Rapp’s lawyers also cited Spacey’s initial statement in response to Rapp’s accusations — where Spacey said he didn’t remember the encounter but “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior” — as evidence that it occurred.
Spacey’s legal team countered that Rapp’s lawsuit was an attempt to gain “attention, sympathy and to raise his own profile.”
“He never became the international star that Kevin Spacey did,” Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Spacey, said in her opening statement. “He has been simmering and simmering with resentment all this time.” The defense also argued that Rapp’s accusations mirror scenes from the play Precious Sons, which Rapp was starring in at the time of the alleged incident.
Rapp, who currently stars on Star Trek: Discovery, is expected to testify during the civil trial, as will Andy Holtzman, another alleged Spacey victim who claims the actor groped him years earlier. The New York Times reports that Spacey’s defense team is expected to call former Doctor Who portrayer John Barrowman to the stand, as that actor was friends with Rapp at the time and Barrowman’s remembrance of events differs from Rapp’s.
Outside of the civil suit, Spacey is still set to face trial on five sexual assault charges in London in June 2023. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
