EXCLUSIVEKevin Spacey Denies Sexually Assaulting 'Rent' Star Anthony Rapp, Demands Jury Trial
Nov. 23 2020, Updated 3:44 p.m. ET
Kevin Spacey denies sexually assaulting a then-underage Anthony Rapp in court papers obtained by OK!. The actor also claims that Rapp never attended the party at which the alleged assault occurred in his Answer to Verified Complaint that was filed on Friday. Spacey similarly denies the claims made by the other plaintiff in that suit, C.D., who alleges he was raped during a visit to the actor's New York City apartment. Both plaintiffs have claimed they were 14 at the time of these assaults.
The lawsuit — which was initially filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan — alleges that Spacey sexually assaulted C.D. on multiple occasions after the two met in an acting class in Westchester County in the 1980s. According to the suit, Spacey invited his acting student to his apartment and “engaged in sexual acts” with him on different occasions. During their final time seeing each other, Spacey assaulted the student, even though he made it clear he didn’t want to be touched by Spacey.
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“Prior to intentionally and voluntarily attempting to anally sodomize C.D., defendant, Kevin Spacey, through his words and acts, intentionally caused the plaintiff, C.D., to become apprehensive that a harmful and/or offensive bodily contact was about to occur," reads the complaint.
Rapp claims that Spacey “engaged in an unwanted sexual advance with a 14-year-old and grabbed Rapp’s buttocks, lifted him onto a bed and laid on plaintiff’s body." He goes on to note that the event led to “sustained psychological injuries, including but not limited to, severe emotional distress, humiliation, fright, anger, depression and anxiety.”
The allegations made by Rapp are not disputed by Spacey but rather flat out denied. In his response to Rapp, Spacey's lawyer writes:
Defendant admits he was in the audience for a production of Precious Sons in approximately the late 1980s in which Plaintiff Rapp was a cast member. Defendant admits he briefly met Plaintiff Rapp on a few occasions at most, but Defendant’s interactions with him were peripheral and limited ... Defendant denies he invited Plaintiff Rapp to any party at his home ... Defendant denies Plaintiff Rapp attended any alleged party at Defendant’s home ... Defendant denies that the alleged incident or any other wrongdoing alleged by Plaintiff Rapp occurred.
That response is a surprise since Spacey initially responded to Rapp's claims by tweeting:
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The allegations made by the other plaintiff in the case are also denied by Spacey, who is asking the court to reveal the name of his alleged victim. C.D's request to proceed anonymously had just been approved in the prior court under New York's Child Victims Act.
Spacey objects to Plaintiff C.D.’s use of a pseudonym and failure to disclose his identity, even to Spacey. Despite this improper withholding of his identity, and Spacey's resulting inability to fully investigate and address the allegations, Spacey nonetheless makes a good faith attempt to answer the allegations in the Complaint. By providing this Answer, Spacey in no way suggests he has not been, and does not continue to be, prejudiced by Plaintiff C.D.’s anonymity. Spacey reserves the right to amend this Answer as deemed necessary or appropriate, including once Plaintiff C.D.’s identity is disclosed.
Spacey has worked to upend the proceedings from the start. Initial attempts to serve him in Baltimore failed, at which time the prosecution learned he was in London. The four-month window required for service internationally pushed back the timeline, allowing Spacey and his team of lawyers to draft a motion demanding the trial be moved from New York Supreme Court in Manhattan to the federal court for the Southern District of New York. That motion succeeded based on the fact that Spacey is not a New York resident.
He is asking for a jury trial in the case, stating that the court should rule in his favor, deny the plaintiffs' request for any monetary damages, require his two accusers to cover his legal fees, and award him "such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper."
Spacey has watched his career crumble under these allegations. He did manage to avoid any prison time, however, when a criminal case against the actor fell apart last year after it was learned the plaintiff in the case had manipulated evidence. In that case, the actor was accused of groping an 18-year-old boy in a Nantucket bar, though he had presented himself to be over the age of 21 at the time.
"I don’t think it will come as a surprise for anyone to say that my world completely changed in the fall of 2017. My job, many of my relationships, my standing in my own industry were all gone in just a matter of hours," Spacey said of the allegations while appearing at a conference in Europe earlier this year.
“And so while we may have found ourselves in similar situations albeit for very different reasons, I still feel that some of the emotional struggles are very much the same. And so I do have empathy for what it feels like to suddenly be told that you can’t go back to work, or that you might lose your job, and it’s a situation you have absolutely no control over.”
Spacey has not worked since, and director Ridley Scott went so far as to cut Spacey from his film All the Money in the World and reshoot with Christopher Plummer in the role just a few weeks before the movie was set to hit theaters. That decision was soon overshadowed, however, by the news that Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million dollars for that week of reshoots while his co-star Michelle Williams — a four-time Academy Award nominee — was given just $80 per day.
Anthony Rapp vs Kevin Spacey by ChrisSpargo on Scribd
