Kevin Spacey did not molest Anthony Rapp in 1986: Jury acquits actor

In one of the lawsuits that decimated Kevin Spacey‘s career, a jury found on Thursday that the actor did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp in 1986, who was 14 at the time, while they were both relatively unknown actors in Broadway shows.

The civil trial’s verdict was rendered in quickly. After deliberating for a little over an hour, the jury in a federal court in New York concluded that Rapp had not established his claims.

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After hearing the verdict, Spacey bowed his head and hugged his attorneys. As he left the courthouse, he avoided speaking to reporters.

“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 of anything he’s been accused of. That there was no truth to any of the allegations,” she added, a reference to other sexual misconduct claims against the actor, including criminal charges in England.

Also read: Anthony Rapp just wanted a highly publicised hearing with media attention: Kevin Spacey attorneys

Rapp claimed in court that Spacey invited him to a party at his residence and then approached him in a bedroom after the other visitors had departed. He claimed that the actor, who was 26 at the time, pulled him up and momentarily lay on top of him on a bed.

Rapp claimed that when drunk Spacey inquired about his intentions, he wriggled out of the way and ran.

Spacey assured the jurors throughout his sometimes-tearful testimony that it never happened and that he would never have been drawn to a 14-year-old.

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, Richard Steigman, accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.

Also read: Kevin Spacey’s lawyer questions accuser Anthony Rapp’s account at sexual misconduct trial

“He lacks credibility,” Steigman said. “Sometimes the simple truth is the best. The simple truth is that this happened.”

Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified over several days at the three-week trial.

The two-time Academy Award winning actor’s once-soaring career was abruptly cut short by Rapp’s and other people’s charges. He was fired from the Netflix series House of Cards, and other opportunities dried up. Rapp was a member of the original Broadway cast of Rent and currently appears frequently on Star Trek: Discovery.

Spacey was accused of groping a man in a club in Massachusetts; the charges against him were eventually withdrawn by the prosecution.

Also read: Kevin Spacey faces civil trial on sexual assault claims

Three months ago, he pleaded not guilty in London to charges that he sexually assaulted three men between 2004 and 2015 when he was the artistic director at the Old Vic theater in London.

A judge in Los Angeles this summer approved an arbitrator’s decision to order Spacey to pay $30.9 million to the makers of “House of Cards” for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.

At the trial, Spacey testified that he was sure the encounter with Rapp never happened, in part because he was living in a studio apartment rather than the one bedroom that Rapp cited, and he never had a gathering beyond a housewarming party.

“I knew I wouldn’t have any sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child. That I knew,” he told jurors.

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During her closing arguments to the jury, Keller suggested reasons Rapp imagined the encounter with Spacey or made it up.

It was possible, she said, that Rapp invented it based on his experience performing in “Precious Sons,” a play in which actor Ed Harris picks up Rapp’s character and lays on top of him, mistaking him briefly for his wife before discovering it is his son.

She also suggested that Rapp later grew jealous that Spacey became a megastar while Rapp had “smaller roles in small shows” after his breakthrough performance in Broadway’s “Rent.”

“So here we are today and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this trial than he has in his entire acting life,” Keller said.

During two days of testimony, Spacey expressed regret for a 2017 statement he issued when Rapp first went public, in which he said he didn’t recall the encounter, but if it happened “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”

Also read: Kevin Spacey charged with sexual assault: A timeline of events

Dabbed his eyes with a tissue, Spacey said he’d been pressured by publicists and lawyers into issuing an empathetic statement at a time when the #MeToo movement 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 the same day Rapp’s accusations surfaced because some interpreted his announcement as an effort to change the subject or deflect from Rapp’s revelations.

Also read: Kevin Spacey charged with sexual assault: All allegations against the actor

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 berated him as gay because he liked the theater.

Spacey also gave courtroom spectators a brief taste of his acting chops when he briefly imitated his Broadway costar at the time, Jack Lemmon. He had testified earlier that his ability at impressions aided him in his acting career.