Kevin Spacey sexual assault trial: Court dismisses intentional emotional distress charges

The judge has allowed accusations of battery to proceed.. Photo / AP

A judge has dismissed part of the sexual misconduct lawsuit against Kevin Spacey.

Before the ‘House of Cards’ actor - who has been accused of assaulting Anthony Rapp at a party in 1986 when Rapp was just 14 years old and Spacey was more than a decade older - testified in court, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The judge - who wasn’t convinced by the evidence presented by Rapp’s lawyers - allowed his accusations of battery to proceed.

Testifying against the claims on Monday October 17, Spacey said: “They are not true. Everything about what was happening in that house was something I had to keep to myself.

”We never, ever, talked about it. I have never talked about these things publicly ever.”

Rapp filed a civil suit against Spacey after a 2020 criminal charge of sexual assault was dismissed by a judge and has been seeking compensation for mental and emotional suffering, medical expenses and loss of work. During his own time on the stand Rapp, now 50, was asked whether he lied about his accusations. He responded: “I have not. It was something that happened to me that was not okay.

”Earlier this month, Spacey’s lawyer claimed Rapp made the allegations ”for attention, for sympathy and to raise his own profile” because he was jealous of the success the ‘American Beauty’ star enjoyed while his own acting career floundered.

Jennifer Keller said in opening arguments: “One of the cardinal rules of the so-called MeToo movement (is) that you have to believe the victim. You’ll see that Mr Spacey said ‘This didn’t happen, I don’t remember it.”They told him to apologise. It was cleverly set up by Mr Rapp... He’s been telling this story to raise his own profile.

”He never became the international star Kevin Spacey did. He has been simmering with resentment. It’s not easy to defend this, after 30 years.”

“As Mr Spacey’s star rose, Mr Rapp grew resentful. ‘Rent’ (the musical)was the apex of his career. He peaked in 2000 and grew bitter. So he became an out gay actor. I don’t know if he would have been a leading man anyway.”

According to court documents, Rapp claimed that during a party in manhattan, Spacey lifted him up and his hand “grazed” his buttocks as he did so. He then alleged the actor placed him back down on a bad and ”briefly placed his own clothed body partially beside and partially across” his.

He said the alleged incident lasted no more than two minutes and there had been “no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothes, and no sexualised statements or innuendo.”Spacey has previously offered his “sincerest apology” to the ‘Star Trek: Discovery actor for any “deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour” but said he did not recall the incident.

And he previously pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually assaulting three men between March 2005 and April 2013 in the UK, while in 2019, charges of indecent assault and sexual assault were dropped in Massachusetts.