A New York jury has sided with actor Kevin Spacey in a $40 million civil lawsuit, finding that the Oscar-winner did not molest Anthony Rapp when he was a teenager and is not liable for battery. After roughly 80 minutes of deliberations, jurors reached a unanimous decision that Rapp’s lawyers had failed to prove that Spacey ‘touched a sexual or intimate part’ of Rapp.
Rapp looked impassive as Judge Lewis Kaplan formally dismissed the case, and Spacey dropped his head briefly. He later stood up and hugged Chase Scolnick, a member of his legal team.
The alleged assault took place after a party at Spacey’s New York City apartment in 1986.
Rapp was 14 years old at the time and Spacey was 26. The two met while appearing in Broadway productions — Rapp in Precious Sons with Ed Harris, Spacey in a Jack Lemmon-led revival of Long Days Journey Into Night. In court, Rapp called the event one of the “most traumatic” of his life.
But Spacey’s lawyers seized on inconsistencies in Rapp’s testimony. They noted, for instance, that Rapp described Spacey as having a separate bedroom, when a floor plan that they produced showed that the actor lived in a studio apartment with one central room.
“The star witness of our case was the floor plan,” Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Spacey, said in her closing statements on Thursday. They also argued that Rapp was upset that Spacey was not openly gay and that he was consumed with jealousy over the actor’s superior Hollywood career.
In their closing arguments, Rapp’s side argued that Spacey was a sexual predator who had taken advantage of a child. Rapp was dealt a blow earlier this week when Judge Kaplan ordered that an emotional distress claim be dropped from the case, declaring it redundant.
Even though Spacey scored a victory against Rapp, he still faces legal challenges. He has been ordered to pay MRC, the producer of House of Cards, $31 million in damages after the political thriller had its episode-order cut in the wake of abuse allegations against the star.
Spacey also faces charges in the U.K. for sexually assaulting three men when he was living in London as the artistic director of the Old Vic theater. He has pled not guilty. — IANS
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