A US federal choose has rejected Kevin Spacey’s bid to dismiss a civil lawsuit wherein a fellow actor, Anthony Rapp, accused the Oscar winner of creating an undesirable sexual advance throughout a celebration at Spacey’s Manhattan residence in 1986, when Rapp was 14.
The US district choose Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan mentioned on Monday there was a real factual dispute about whether or not the now 62-year-old Spacey had forcibly touched Rapp’s “intimate components” to gratify his personal sexual want.
Kaplan mentioned Rapp, 50, who's looking for compensatory and punitive damages, might pursue claims of battery and intentional infliction of emotional misery. The choose dismissed an assault declare as a result of Rapp had introduced it too late.
A lawyer for Spacey didn't instantly reply to requests for remark. Spacey has in courtroom papers “categorically” denied Rapp’s accusations.
Rapp’s lawyer Peter Saghir declined to remark.
As soon as amongst Hollywood’s greatest stars, Spacey fell from grace after Rapp accused him of misconduct in October 2017, and extra accusers got here ahead.
Final month, British authorities licensed felony prices in opposition to Spacey for alleged sexual assaults in opposition to three males between 2005 and 2013. Spacey might formally face the costs if he enters England or Wales.
The actor’s awards have included Oscars in 2000 for finest actor in American Magnificence and in 1996 for finest supporting actor in The Regular Suspects. He additionally gained a Tony in 1991 for finest featured actor in a play in Neil Simon’s Misplaced in Yonkers.
Netflix dropped Spacey from his starring position in Home of Playing cards after accusations started surfacing, and the collection completed with out him.
Within the alleged 1986 encounter, Spacey grabbed Rapp’s buttocks, lifted him on to a mattress and lay on him earlier than Rapp “wriggled out”, courtroom papers say.
Rapp has mentioned below oath there was no kissing, undressing, reaching below garments, sexualized statements or innuendo, and the encounter lasted not more than two minutes.
He sued Spacey in September 2020 and invoked the Youngster Victims Act, a New York regulation giving accusers a since-expired window to sue over abuses from a long time earlier.
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