Did Kevin Spacey Dodge a $40 Million Bullet in Sexual Allegation Lawsuit?

Kevin Spacey legal troubles in Great Britain appear to be getting worse after authorities turned six sexual assault allegations to the Crown Prosecution Service, who will now decide if the 61-year-old Hollywood actor will be charged, reported The Sun.

But in the United States, Spacey may have dodged a bullet after a federal judge in New York "denied an anonymous accuser of the one-time 'House of Cards' star his move to keep his identity private in the big bucks assault and battery suit filed last September with 'Star Trek Discovery' star Anthony Rapp." reports Deadline. The accuser has 10 days to consider going public with his name, but "the man's lawyers have already told the court that their client feels he "is emotionally unable to proceed with the action and will discontinue his claims.'"

"The man had met Spacey in the actor's suburban New York acting class before the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit which seeks over $40 million in damages," reported USA Today.

The take-away would be that the case would not go forward and Spacey will side step "some very damning allegations and perhaps $40 million in damages," Deadline adds.

Judge Lewis A Kaplan's opinion appeared swayed by the fact that "C.D. spoke to a number of people, including Rapp and members of the media, about his claims of Spacey sexually abusing him in the early 1980s, when the now 50+-years-old plaintiff was a minor."

Deadline wrote: "The evidence suggests that C.D. knowingly and repeatedly took the risk that any of these individuals at one point or another would reveal his true identity in a manner that would bring that identity to wide public attention, particularly given Spacey's celebrity," Judge Kaplan wrote in his 20-page memorandum opinion (read it here).

C.D. had earlier given an interview with New York Magazine's Vulture, which described his relationship with Spacey, which began when he was 14, in 1983. He came forward because he was angered by the Oscar-winner's response to Rapp's accusations.

C.D.'s reluctance to come forward is due to his fear that it would "re-trigger" his PTSD about the assault. But the judge, though sympathetic, was unconvinced, adding that the media attention from the trial itself would create a climate in which his identity would be revealed regardless. "As media coverage of the allegations against Spacey grows, as would be very likely as this litigation proceeds and a trial approaches or takes place, it is only common sense to say that the risk of disclosure would grow," the judge wrote in his ruling. "He makes serious charges and, as a result, has put his credibility in issue."

He added that "it does not follow that the public has an interest in maintaining the anonymity of every person who alleges sexual assault or other misconduct of a highly personal nature... For the foregoing reasons, C.D. has not shown that his privacy interest is sufficient to warrant allowing him to litigate his sexual assault allegations anonymously. Accordingly, on balance, the public interest does not weigh in favor of C.D.'s use of an (sic) pseudonym."

Neither C.D. or Anthony Rapp returned the Daily Beast's requests for comment.

Rapp's accusations that Spacey had abused him when he was a minor went public in October 2017, and let to the actor's publicly coming out while claiming he had no memory of Rapp's claims. "Since Rapp's allegations and the ones that followed, a career dead and disgraced Spacey has mainly been seen in court and in bizarre videos he periodically posts online, such as in Christmas 2020," writes the Daily Beast.

In Britain, Spacey was interviewed by law enforcement "under caution by the Metropolitan Police's Complex Case Team in America back in 2019. He was never arrested but spoke to detectives about the allegations which span between 1996 and 2013," writes the Daily Mail.

A source told MailOnline: "Due to the high-profile nature of the allegations they will take all the time they need to made a decision. The file was sent late last year and has been considered for a few months already."

MailOnline disclosed the six allegations police investigated, which "include one in Lambeth in 2008, referred by the City of London Police to the Metropolitan Police on November 1, 2017. It was alleged the 61-year-old had performed a sex act on the complainant while he was asleep. A second alleged victim went to police on 20 November, 2008, in relation to a sexual assault in Lambeth in 2005. And a third, made on 13 December 2017, concerns an allegation of sexual assault in Westminster in 2005."

Three further complaints were received during February and April 2018, "relating to alleged offenses in Westminster in 1996, Lambeth in 2008 and Gloucester in 2013," the Mail added.