James Cohen was quoted in USA Today about Kevin Spacey’s statement in response to Anthony Rapp’s accusation that Spacey sexually harassed him when he was 14.
Fordham University law professor James Cohen says Spacey probably intended this acknowledgment as a “distraction” from the underlying accusation.
Though the 31-year-old incident may affect Spacey’s reputation, the passage of so much time protects him from criminal prosecution or a civil suit under New York state law. And there’s no doubt from his careful remarks Sunday night that Spacey knew that, Cohen says, calling his tweet an “extremely well-crafted and well-lawyered statement.”
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Although there is no statute of limitation in New York on the actual rape of an adult or child, that is not the case for attempted statutory rape, Cohen notes. Under the law, Rapp would have had to press criminal charges or file a lawsuit within five years of reaching the age of majority, 18.
“If the accuser is below majority, the statute would extend until he reached majority, and as long as it’s a one-off (encounter) and not part of a course of sexual misconduct against a child, it would be five years after that,” Cohen says.
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Cohen says such statutes aren’t aimed at preventing accusers from suing or at protecting child molesters.
“They’re designed to make sure the evidence is sound, that memories haven’t faded to such an extent that people are not making them up as they go along. That’s something fundamental people are forgetting.”
Could an aggressive prosecutor or a clever lawyer bring charges or a lawsuit anyway? Sure, Cohen says, but “no matter how you do the math, it’s not going to work.”