NEW YORK -- A judge dismissed Monday one of the legal claims Kevin Spacey faces from actor Anthony Rapp, who says Spacey made a sexual advance on him in his apartment in the 1980s when he was 14 years old.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan threw out the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress after lawyers for Rapp finished their presentation of evidence. Kaplan said elements of the claim duplicate Rapp's claim that he was a victim of assault and battery.
Spacey’s lawyer argued for dismissal of the case on the grounds that Rapp’s attorneys had failed to prove his claims.
Kaplan said the trial can proceed with assault and battery claims asserted by Rapp, a 50-year-old regular on “Star Trek: Discovery” on television. He was part of the original Broadway cast of “Rent.”
Spacey, 63, is expected to testify later Monday. Spacey was an Oscar-winning actor popular on the Netflix series “House of Cards” when claims by Rapp and others in 2017 abruptly derailed his career.
Rapp was performing in “Precious Sons” on Broadway in 1986 when he met Spacey, then 26.
Rapp testified that he was watching television on a bed in Spacey's apartment after a party when a fully clothed Spacey entered the room, lifted him up like a groom carries a bride, laid him across the bed and climbed partially on top of him.
Rapp said he wriggled free and briefly went into a bathroom before fleeing the apartment, but not before Spacey followed him to the door and asked if he was sure he wanted to leave.
The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Rapp has done.
