NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury heard the remaining evidence in actor Anthony Rapp’s civil sex abuse lawsuit against Kevin Spacey on Wednesday and will soon begin deliberating the case.
Rapp and Spacey’s lawyers are expected to deliver closing arguments early Thursday before jurors are instructed on how to deliberate. Rapp’s $40 million lawsuit accuses Spacey of making an unwanted sexual advance when he was 14 years old and Spacey was 26.
Rapp, who’s now 50, claims Spacey mounted him with “dead weight” while they were alone in the older actor’s apartment in 1986, sexually propositioning him before the teen squirmed out from underneath him.
In determining whether Spacey, 63, is liable, jurors must consider Rapp’s battery claim. Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan threw out Rapp’s other claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The final witness called by Spacey was forensic psychiatrist Alexander Bardey, who Rapp’s lawyers grilled on cross-examination Wednesday about making $45,000 to testify in the “American Beauty” actor’s defense.
Rapp’s medical expert said he has PTSD. Spacey’s expert Bardey said he disagreed with that diagnosis and found Rapp displayed traits related to narcissistic personality disorder.
Before he finished on the stand, Rapp’s lawyers asked Bardey whether any narcissists have won Academy Awards. Bardey said there likely were.
Spacey has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 men, including sexual assault and rape since Rapp came forward in 2017. He faces criminal charges in the U.K. related to allegations from four men and is expected to go on trial there next year. He denies all allegations.
