A US jury has found two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey to be not liable in the $40m sexual misconduct civil case brought by actor Anthony Rapp over an alleged incident 36 years ago.
The 11 jurors – one was excused after hurting his back – took a little over an hour to deliberate. Upon hearing he was found not to have molested Rapp and was not liable for battery, Spacey, 63, reportedly lowered his head before rising to embrace his legal team.
Rapp, who is now 50, alleged that in 1986 when he was 14years old Spacey, then 26, lifted him on to the bed in his New York apartment after a party and attempted to have sex with him. The pair had met while appearing in different plays on Broadway.
The younger man first went public with his allegation in 2017. Spacey broke down during the three-week trial when he said his publicist had urged him to apologise to Rapp, resulting in a statement on Twitter in October 2017 in which he also came out as gay. Spacey told the Manhattan court the incident had taught him not to apologise for something he had not done.
The Academy Award winner for American Beauty and The Usual Suspects has always denied the incident. His trial team argued Rapp, a regular actor on Star Trek: Discovery, was inconsistent in his testimony, at one point producing a floor plan to prove Spacey lived in a studio apartment after the plaintiff had referred to a second bedroom.
The veteran actor’s legal woes are not over, however. He faces a UK trial in June next year and has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting three men a decade or more ago.
In August Spacey was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to pay $31m to House Of Cards Media Rights Capital for alleged sexual misconduct behind the scenes. Spacey portrayed fictitious US politician Frank Underwood on the show and was fired during the sixth season.
Separately, Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial in Los Angeles will start on Monday after a jury was empanelled. It is expected to run until the end of the year.
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