A New York court jury ruled Thursday that Kevin Spacey did not sexually assault actor Anthony Rapp, who accused him of trying to seduce him in 1986 when he was 14 years old.
The Manhattan court’s verdict ends a civil trial that was an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement.
The lawsuit, based on Rapp’s 2017 claims, asked for $40 million in damages.
Plaintiff’s attorney Richard Steigman asked the jury to make Spacey pay for attempting to sexually assault Rapp in his Manhattan apartment 36 years ago after a party. Steigman accused Spacey of lying.
For her part, Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Spacey, told the jury that Rapp fabricated the meeting and said the plaintiff’s allegations should be dismissed.
Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, testified for several days in a three-week trial.
The accusations by Rapp and others brought the career of Spacey, the two-time Oscar winner, to an abrupt halt, as he lost his job on Netflix’s “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities slip away.
Rapp is a regular on the CBS television series “Star Trek: Discovery” and was part of the original cast of the Broadway musical “Rent.”
Source: TSF
