A jury sided Kevin Spacey Thursday in one of the trials that derailed the movie star’s career, finding he did not sexually abuse Antoine Rappthen 14, when both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in 1986.
The civil verdict test came at lightning speed. Jurors to a federal court in new york deliberated for just over an hour before deciding that Rapp had not proven his allegations.
When the verdict was read, Spacey bowed his head, then hugged his lawyers. He did not speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.
“We are very grateful to the jury for seeing through these false allegations,” said his lawyer, Jennifer Keller.
“The next step is that Mr. Spacey is going to be proven innocent of everything he’s been accused of. That there was no truth to any of the allegations,” she added. , a reference to other sexual misconduct allegations against the actor, including criminal ones. loads in England.
During the trial, Rapp said Spacey invited him to his apartment for a party, then approached him in a bedroom after the other guests left. He said the actor, then 26, picked him up and partially lay on top of him on a bed before squirming and running away as an inebriated Spacey shoved him. asked if he was sure he wanted to leave.
In his sometimes tearful testimony, Spacey told the jury that never happened and that he would never have been attracted to someone 14 years old.
The lawsuit sought $40 million in damages.
Rapp and his attorneys also left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. In his closing statements to the jury on Thursday, Rapp’s attorney, Richard Steigman, accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.
“He lacks credibility,” Steigman said. “Sometimes the simple truth is best. The simple truth is that it happened.”
Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified for several days during the three-week trial.
Rapp’s claims, and those of others, brought an abrupt end to what had been a meteoric career for the two-time Oscar-winning actor, who lost his job on the Netflix series “House of Cards” and I saw other opportunities dry up. Rapp is a regular on “Star Trek: Discovery” on television and was part of the original Broadway cast of “Rent.”
spacey-faced charges in Massachusetts that he groped a man in a bar – allegations that were later dropped by prosecutors.
Three months ago, he pleaded not guilty in London to charges that he sexually assaulted three men between 2004 and 2015 when he was artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London.
This summer, a Los Angeles judge approved an arbitrator’s decision to order Spacey to pay $30.9 million to the creators of “House of Cards” for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.
The Associated Press generally does not name people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Rapp did.
At trial, Spacey testified that he was sure the meeting with Rapp never happened, in part because he lived in a studio apartment rather than the bedroom Rapp cited, and he didn’t. had never had a gathering beyond a housewarming party.
“I knew I would have no sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child. I knew that,” he told jurors.
During his closing arguments before the jury, Keller suggested reasons why Rapp either imagined meeting Spacey or made it up.
It was possible, she said, that Rapp made it up based on his experience in “Precious Sons,” a play in which actor Ed Harris takes Rapp’s character and lies down on him, the briefly mistaking it for his wife before discovering that he is her son.
She also suggested that Rapp later got jealous that Spacey had become a megastar while Rapp had “smaller roles in smaller shows” after his breakthrough performance in Broadway’s “Rent.”
“Fame didn’t follow him,” Keller said. “Mr. Rapp’s coach turned into a pumpkin.”
“So here we are today and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this lawsuit than he’s had in his entire acting life,” Keller said. She said Rapp is well known now because he knocked out one of Hollywood’s biggest actors.
During two days of testimony, Spacey expressed regret for a 2017 statement he released when Rapp first went public, in which he said he did not remember the encounter, but if it had happened “I owe him the most sincere apologies for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
Dabbing his eyes with a tissue, Spacey said he was pressured by publicists and lawyers to issue an empathetic statement at a time when the #MeToo movement was making everyone in the industry nervous.
“I learned a lesson, which is to never apologize for something you didn’t do,” he said.
He also cried saying he was sorry publicly revealing he was gay on the same day, Rapp’s accusations surfaced because some interpreted his announcement as an effort to change the subject or deflect Rapp’s revelations.
Spacey had testified that he spoke at trial about deeply personal matters, telling the jury that his father was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi who had chastised him as gay because he loved the theater.
Spacey also gave courtroom viewers a brief glimpse of his acting skills when he impersonated then-Broadway bandmate Jack Lemmon. He had testified earlier that his ability for impressions helped him in his acting career.
