The sex abuse trial of actor Kevin Spacey hit a snag when the judge announced one of Spacey’s top lawyers had come down with COVID-19.

US district judge Lewis A. Kaplan told the jury on Thursday that attorney Jennifer Keller was missing because she had tested positive for the virus after feeling symptoms Wednesday night. Kaplan, after putting precautions in place, decided to let the trial go forward.

Rapp’s lawyers were nearing the end of the presentation of their case against Spacey when Keller got sick.

On Thursday, members of Spacey’s defence team, including Spacey, and members of the jury wore masks in the courtroom.

Facemasks are generally optional in the courthouse and Keller was not wearing one Wednesday when she questioned actor Anthony Rapp about his claim that Spacey made a sexual advance on him in 1986 when he was a 14-year-old child actor. At that time, Spacey, then 26, was having a breakout moment on Broadway.

Rapp said the older actor had invited him to a party at his Manhattan apartment and then tried to seduce him in a bedroom after the other guests had left.

When Rapp told his story to Buzzfeed in 2017 as the #MeToo movement began to grip Hollywood, Spacey said he had no recollection of the incident. “But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour.”

However, the House of Cards star, now 63, later denied Rapp's accusation.