NEW YORK (AP) — A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of thelawsuits that derailed the film star’s career, finding he did not sexuallyabuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, while both were relatively unknown actors inBroadway plays in 1986.
The verdict in the civil trial came with lightning speed. Jurors at a federalcourt in New York deliberated for a little more than an hour before decidingthat Rapp hadn’t proven his allegations.
When the verdict was read, Spacey dropped his head, then hugged his lawyers.He didn’t speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.
“We’re very grateful to the jury for seeing through these false allegations,”said his attorney, Jennifer Keller.
“What’s next is mr. Spacey is going to be proven that he’s innocent ofanything he’s been accused of. That there was no truth to any of theallegations,” she added, a reference to other sexual misconduct claims againstthe actor, including criminal charges in England.
During the trial, Rapp testified that Spacey had invited him to his apartmentfor a party, then approached him in a bedroom after the other guests left. Hesaid the actor, then 26, picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on abed.
Rapp tested that he wriggled away and fled as an inebriated Spacey asked if hewas sure he wanted to leave.
In his sometimes-tearful testimony, Spacey told the jury it never happened,and he would never have been attracted to someone who was 14.
The lawsuit sought $40 million in damages.
Rapp and his lawyers also left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.In his closing statements to the jury Thursday, Rapp’s lawyer, RichardSteigman, accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.
“He lacks credibility,” Steigman said. “Sometimes the simple truth is thebest. The simple truth is that this happened.”
Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each tested over several days at the three-weektrial.
Rapp’s claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted what had been asoaring career for the two-time Academy Award winning actor, who lost his jobon the Netflix series “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities dry up.Rapp is a regular on TV’s “Star Trek: Discovery” and was part of the originalBroadway cast of “Rent.”
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Spacey faced charges in Massachusetts that he groped a man at a bar —allegations that were later dropped by prosecutors.
Three months ago, he pleaded not guilty in London to charges that he sexuallyassaulted three men between 2004 and 2015 when he was the artistic director atthe Old Vic theater in London.
A judge in Los Angeles this summer approved an arbitrator’s decision to orderSpacey to pay $30.9 million to the makers of “House of Cards” for violatinghis contract by sexually harassing crew members.
The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual assaultunless they come forward publicly, as Rapp has done.
At the trial, Spacey testified that he was sure the encounter with Rapp neverhappened, in part because he was living in a studio apartment rather than theone bedroom that Rapp cited, and he never had a gathering beyond ahousewarming party.
“I knew I wouldn’t have any sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child. ThatI knew,” he told judges.
During her closing arguments to the jury, Keller suggested reasons Rappimagined the encounter with Spacey or made it up.
It was possible, she said, that Rapp invented it based on his experienceperforming in “Precious Sons,” a play in which actor Ed Harris picks up Rapp’scharacter and lays on top of him, mistaking him briefly for his wife beforediscovering it is his son.
She also suggested that Rapp later grew jealous that Spacey became a megastarwhile Rapp had “smaller roles in small shows” after his breakthroughperformance in Broadway’s “Rent.”
“So here we are today and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this trialthan he has in his entire acting life,” Keller said.
During two days of testimony, Spacey expressed regret for a 2017 statement heissued when Rapp first went public, in which he said he didn’t recall theencounter, but if it happened “I owe him the sincerest apology for what wouldhave been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
Dabbed his eyes with a tissue, Spacey said he’d been pressured by publicistsand lawyers into issuing an empathetic statement at a time when the #MeToomovement made everyone in the industry nervous.
“I’ve learned a lesson, which is never apologize for something you didn’t do,”he said.
He also cried as he said he regretted revealing publicly that he was gay thesame day Rapp’s accusations surfaced because some interpreted his announcementas an effort to change the subject or deflect from Rapp’s revelations.
Spacey had testified that he spoke at the trial about deeply personal matters,telling the jury his father was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi who beratedhim as gay because he liked the theater.
Spacey also gave courtroom spectators a brief taste of his acting chops whenhe briefly imitated his Broadway costar at the time, Jack Lemon. He hadtestified earlier that his ability at impressions aided him in his actingcareer.
This story has been updated to correct the day of the week in the leadparagraph to Thursday, not Tuesday.