CHICAGO, Aug 26 (AFP) - William Kennedy Smith, the Kennedy clan member who beat charges of rape in the early 1990s, has been accused of sexual assault again -- this time in a civil suit, according to court papers.
The doctor is accused of raping a former personal assistant five years ago in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Chicago.
The woman who brought the suit, Audra Soulias, alleges that Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, forced her into his home after a night of drinking with co-workers and assaulted her.
The suit seeks damages in excess of 50,000 dollars.
Soulias worked for Smith at the Center for International Rehabilitation, a non-profit organisation founded by Smith to help the disabled in war-torn nations.
Smith's representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday, but he denied the accusations in a statement cited by local media.
"Unfortunately, my family and my personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of allegations," he said.
Kennedy Smith, 43, moved to Chicago, where he has kept a low profile, after he was acquitted of raping a woman at the Kennedy family compound in West Palm Beach, Florida in a televised trial in 1991.