Trial of Kevin Spacey
Plaintiff Anthony Rapp endures harsh cross-examination
Anthony Rapp claims he was molested by Kevin Spacey when he was 14.
© Debby Wong/Shutterstock.com
The trial of Kevin Spacey continues in New York. His legal team now took the plaintiff Anthony Rapp in a tough cross-examination.
A sensational trial against two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey (63) is currently taking place in New York. His fellow actor Anthony Rapp (50), known from the sci-fi series “Star Trek: Discovery”, accuses Spacey of sexually molesting him in 1986, when Rapp was just 14 years old. On Thursday last week, the plaintiff repeated his already known allegations under oath. Now, Rapp has been cross-examined harshly by Spacey’s legal team. Inconsistencies and contradictions in Rapp’s testimony are intended to cast doubt on the plaintiff’s credibility.
How reliable are Anthony Rapp’s memories of the events that took place 36 years ago?
Rapp had testified that after meeting Spacey for the first time a few days later, he was invited to a party in his New York apartment. The sexual assault is said to have happened that evening. At the time, Rapp did not notice that the other guests at the party had left because he was watching TV in a separate bedroom. Spacey’s lawyers, however, explained in court that their client lived in a studio apartment at the time. There were no separate rooms in this apartment.
When asked if Rapp misremembered, the 50-year-old actor replied, “It’s possible, and I remember a bedroom,” as reported by the New York Times.
How did the evening of getting to know each other end?
Rapp first met the defendant together with his fellow actor John Barrowman (55) during an after-show party on Broadway. Spacey is said to have invited the two to a nightclub after the party. Barrowman previously stated at the trial that all three went to Spacey’s apartment together after going to the nightclub. However, Rapp had assured the court that he and Barrowman went home the night they first met after visiting the club and that there were no incidents.
When asked by Spacey’s attorney if Barrowman’s testimony Rapp had “a problem with [seiner] history”, he replied according to “Deadline”: “I deny [Barrowmans] story not. I just don’t remember it.”
Did Lupita Nyong’o encourage her colleague to raise his voice?
Spacey’s legal team also pointed out another possible inconsistency in Rapp’s statements in court. The actor previously said he was inspired by his colleague Lupita Nyong’o’s (39) public allegations against Harvey Weinstein (70) in October 2017 to report on Spacey’s sexual assault in a “BuzzFeed” article .
However, Spacey’s attorneys produced text messages in court that Rapp sent to BuzzFeed reporter Adam B. Vary with the intention of telling his story. Rapp sent the news at the time before Nyong’o’s article had even appeared in the New York Times. “It’s just not true that your article inspired you, is it?” Spacey’s attorney asked the plaintiff according to “Variety”whereupon he gave in and declared: “That was not true.”