NEW YORK — Kevin Spacey’s trial lawyer came down with COVID-19 on Thursday as a Manhattan judge ruled the case would continue without her.
The “American Beauty” star is on trial in Manhattan Federal Court facing allegations in a $40 million civil lawsuit that he preyed upon actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and he was 26.
Jennifer Keller’s diagnosis comes after she spent about five hours cross-examining Rapp on the witness stand over two days — a few feet away from the jury box without wearing a mask.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said that “certainly, a number of jurors, No. 6, No. 5″ came into close contact with Keller, but said he wanted to “save the trial, if we can, safely” and advised them to get tested.
After learning his lawyer had come down with a coronavirus case, Kaplan asked the actor, “Mr. Spacey, are you fully vaccinated?”
“Yes,” replied Spacey.
It’s not the first time COVID has been in attendance this year at a high-profile trial in the lower Manhattan courthouse. In January, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against The New York Times was delayed when she tested positive on the first day of jury selection.
Rapp claims that Spacey placed him on a bed in a sexually suggestive manner after a party at the older actor’s Upper East Side apartment and lay atop him with “dead weight” before the teen managed to extricate himself.
Nearing the end of his time on the witness stand Wednesday, Rapp told the jury that he decided to go public with the allegations as he did not believe he was alone. Kaplan struck that answer from the record and told jurors to disregard it.
The panelists do not know Spacey has been accused by more than 20 men of sexual misconduct and faces criminal assault charges in the U.K. The actor is expected to take the stand next week.
