Kevin Spacey Pushes to Limit Testimony From Ghislaine Maxwell Witness

Kevin Spacey's trying to limit the. testimony of a key witness in his. upcoming sexual assault trial testimony. that could arguably change the whole. case journalist Megan kunith comes on to. discuss welcome to sidebar presented by. long crime I'm Jesse Weber. so the actor is facing a civil sexual. assault trial next week out in New York. and his accuser Anthony Rapp is suing. Spacey for 40 million dollars he claims. that this assault happened back in 1986. when he was just 14 years old the two.

were working on Broadway on different. Productions and Spacey has emphatically. denied this happening says this was no. assault whatsoever but now Spacey's. lawyers are doing something interesting. they're actually trying to limit the. testimony of a key expert who had. testified in Glenn Maxwell's criminal. sex trafficking case so this is called. emotion in lemonade it's basically. trying to prevent certain evidence from. being seen by the jury it's very common. in these kinds of litigations but this.

could seriously impact how this trial. might unfold so talk about what this. could mean I'm joined right now by. journalist Megan cuniff who wrote a. great piece on this on longcrime.com. Megan great to have you back here on. sidebar thanks for having me great to. see you all right let's get into it so. Spacey's lawyers they filed this motion. seeking to limit the testimony of Lisa. Rocio I might be saying that a bit wrong. uh who is she and what are they trying. to do here. she is a psychologist she's got an.

office up in Rhode Island and she's done. a lot of work in a lot of different. cases she testifies as an expert in. court she was an expert for the. prosecution in the Maxwell trial it. looks like she does a lot of different. types of testimony regarding sexual. abuse victims in the Maxwell trial she. didn't talk about any victims. specifically related to Maxwell she. talked more about the The Grooming. procedure in general that sex abusers. might take whereas in this case she.

actually met with Anthony rep nine and a. half hours over three days on zoom and. and really talked to him about what. happened between him and Spacey. everything like that and did an analysis. of of him and then also of the. allegations that Spacey's lawyers say. really step over the line of what she. should be able to testify about they say. that she really should not be able to. testify about The credibility or whether. she thinks something actually happened. or what she thinks happened back then so.

in other words she shouldn't be allowed. to testify whether or not Anthony Rapp. is credible. and she had testified to not something. different in the lane Maxwell case but. would you argue that what she testified. to in Maxwell was important for the. prosecution's case I mean for me when. I'm looking at this I feel she could be. a vital witness because if this. testimony is not limited to say what her. observations were of rap if he was. telling the truth or not that could be. important for a jury.

absolutely I I really think she was a. key witness for the prosecution in the. Maxwell case and while her testimony. might be uh looking a little different. in this case it's still pivotal pivotal. testimony for Anthony Rapp and and to. get an expert up there who's really. spent time with him and analyzed them I. mean a lot of the times we'll hear. criticism about an expert saying oh the. expert never actually met with the. person they only reviewed transcripts of. medical records that kind of thing but. here this doctor actually met with.

Anthony Rappin and did her own. assessment so according to uh Spacey's. attorneys and their memorandum they said. that she admitted that she has no expert. qualifications in determining whether an. act of past sexual abuse actually. occurred that she explicitly admitted it. is not part of her role as a treating. therapist to determine whether someone's. claims of past sexual abuse are credible. if they're right Megan and you tell me. if they're right about this it seems the. judge is not going to allow her to. testify about any of this yeah I mean it.

does seem like we're going to see some. kind of limiting order on her testimony. we're definitely going to be hearing. from her if if Anthony Rapp wants to. call her because species attorneys even. acknowledged in there that she will be. able to testify about uh. emotional uh trauma that kind of thing. but yeah the testimony about The. credibility and whether this event. actually happened I think the Judge is. definitely going to have some things to. consider here in in the testimony. probably won't go as far as the report. that she uh issued or her deposition.

kind of indicated. my understanding is his defense team has. been quite busy they have been filing. motion after motion and I will tell you. from the outside it doesn't look like. the easiest case for the the plaintiff. side you're dealing with a very old. claim on top of that I my understanding. is that the defense attorneys kind of. said this could be the next Johnny Depp. trial maybe not in terms of the. attention but you had somebody who. Johnny Depp everybody thought that he. did that trial comes along he changes.

the narrative they're saying this could. be the same kind of thing with Kevin. Spacey do you see that I mean what. should we know about the defense's case. and Kevin Spacey's lawyers. exactly I mean I've heard that uh. Spacey's lead lawyer wishes that she. could uh help him in the case over in. London because she just thinks that he. is wrongfully accused and she's looking. to she's looking forward to seeing him. Vindicated She was recently interviewed. by the Los Angeles Daily Journal kind of. a newspaper for the Judiciary for their. top 100 lawyers of the year and she.

talked about the Spacey case and like. you said she Drew comparisons to Johnny. Depp's situation and just kind of the. public outcry that he faced before his. claims and his and all the evidence was. really aired at trial and and. unfortunately the situation is different. here whereas in federal court there are. going to be no cameras or anything like. that but I I think we're going to be. hearing a lot of reports about how the. evidence comes in and and you know how. that how that looks for Spacey I will. say that the lawyers uh out here in.

California they'll be I'm assuming. flying to New York next week to get set. up but they're they're very well. respected they're not a high uh big name. firm or a roommate mainstream firm so I. think sometimes they get overlooked but. Jennifer Keller Kevin Spacey's main. lawyer is widely considered one of the. top trial attorneys in the country so. it'll be interesting to see how they. match up with raps lawyers who I think. are are very well experienced but have a. lot of experience in state court and and. some in federal too but those can be you.

know totally different situations and. Jennifer is just an ace you know in in. all respects so I think it will be a a. good trial and an interesting trial. I'm not surprised Kevin Spacey is able. to retain some of the highest quality. attorneys shocker there you know once an. A-list actor I will ask you a question. about something else and just to let. everybody know his attorneys have filed. other motions to to limit other evidence. from coming in for example raps lawyers. shouldn't reference or shouldn't be.

allowed to reference other allegations. against Spacey including accusations. from Justin Dawes and Andrew Holtzman. they both say Spacey sexually assaulted. them back in 1981. so we're gonna see. how that shakes up there was something. interesting that I saw in your article. there's some discussion about The. credibility of a journalist Adam very. whom my understanding again was the. person that first reported Spacey's. allegations back in 2017 is there a. credibility issue here. it really looks like he's kind of been.

thrust in the middle of this and I mean. he has his own lawyer and and is being. supported by his news organizations and. the judge did say overall that he. appears to have adhered to journalistic. principles of not allowing rap to review. the story things like that but one thing. that struck me was that he's known rap. for years that they're that they're. friends and they and that their. correspondence went back years before. this and was not about Spacey in. particular and and that wasn't disclosed.

in the original article so that seems. like something that you know. journalistically you would imagine that. the writer of such kind of a. controversial story like that would. would be more upfront about his. relationship with rap but. um it sounds like the the judge kind of. went back and forth on. um on what actually happened here and. did adhere to the confidentiality rap. had uh just put some information forth. for in-cam review actually he had. withheld the idea of some of the.

confidential sources and the judge did. say that that was all in keeping that he. did have journalistic privilege to do. that and his lawyer really emphasized. the importance to to Adam Berry who's. the journalist of protecting his. confidential sources but it looks like. in the in-camera review to the judge. there was some stuff that his uh the. journalist lawyer submitted. acknowledging that it wasn't. confidential news Gathering materials. they they argued it was news Gathering. materials but admitted it wasn't. confidential and there were a few things. that the judge did order released it.

sounds like the the vast majority of. what Spacey wanted from the journalist. was not released but there are a few. text messages and and other. correspondence that the judge said could. be used to kind of question his. credibility and whether he would have a. reason to to leave certain details out. or not include certain details that. could lead to questions one was uh his. wraps allegation about the Tony Awards. about seeing him at the Tony Awards. there's a text message exchange and.

there were Adam says you know we've been. unable to place him at the Tony Awards. so we think we might kind of gloss over. that detail I mean he doesn't say it. exactly like that what does that mean. what does that mean play some at the. Tony Awards he's he was as a journalist. he was trying to independently verify. that uh Kevin Spacey did attend the Tony. Awards I think it was 2008. just uh as. all journalists do when they're dealing. with these kind of me too stories you. know they want to fact check everything. if somebody says I saw him at the Tony. Awards in 2008 you know they have to go.

find something that also places him at. the Tony Awards in 2008 and they weren't. able to do that so the the text message. shows him telling rap that you know they. think that they're they're going to not. mention that or just describe it as an. award show because putting that out. there and having it not verified just. gives people a reason to poke holes in. the story before and and the judge did. comment that you know that is relevant. to Spacey's defense Year and that could. be presented to the jury so things like. that are what's going to be disclosed.

but it sounds like the vast majority of. his confidential news Gathering won't. but some of those text messages you know. did raise some eyebrows. I would say I I think you're seeing. Kevin Spacey's lawyers already trying to. mount this defense and uh I I don't know. I don't know this is an interesting case. it is civil it's not criminal but it's. important nonetheless we also know that. you know Kevin Spacey is uh facing. criminal charges in London where he's. accused of assaulting three men between. 2005 and 2013 not necessarily this case. will have an effect on it but it's just.

another uh aspect of Kevin Spacey's uh. you know one text message that that's a. keep it going here but one text message. remember they disclosed was there was an. incident between the writer Adam very. and his father they actually saw Kevin. Spacey out at a restaurant a few years. before this happened and had an. unpleasant exchange with them and it. wasn't anything related to the story or. anything like that but the judge was. saying like hey this kind of past. experience with Kevin Spacey is. absolutely relevant so it sounds like. we're going to be hearing about.

meaning like you have a vendetta against. Spacey that's why you're going to go out. yeah you'd imagine that that's how it's. going to be presented all right Megan. cuniff thanks so much for coming on. writing about this you can check out the. article on longcrime.com and Megan I. know you're going to continue to follow. this case once it heads to trial and. maybe we'll have you back on and we'll. talk about what's happening in the trial. Megan thank you so much. and thanks everybody for joining us here. on sidebar please subscribe on Apple. podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get. your podcast I'm Jesse Weber speak to.

you next time foreign.