A jury has concluded that Kevin Spacey did not molest fellow actor Anthony Rapp in the 1980s, bringing to a conclusion a trial that was an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement.
The verdict in the Manhattan federal court civil trial came after jurors considered whether to believe Mr Rapp's claims that he was psychologically damaged after Mr Spacey made a sexual advance on him in 1986.
At the time, both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays.
Deliberations lasted just over an hour. When the verdict was read, Mr Spacey dropped his head. But he then hugged lawyers and others before leaving the courtroom.
Earlier on Thursday, a lawyer for Mr Rapp, Richard Steigman, urged jurors to make Mr Spacey pay for trying to make a sexual advance on Mr Rapp in Spacey's Manhattan apartment in 1986 after a party. He accused Mr Spacey of lying on the witness stand.
Jennifer Keller, a lawyer for Mr Spacey, told jurors that Mr Rapp made up the encounter and said they should reject Mr Rapp’s claims.
Mr Rapp, 50, and Mr Spacey, 63, each testified over several days at the three-week trial.
In his closing, Mr Steigman said jurors should conclude that Mr Spacey lied to them when he insisted that the encounter could not have happened, in part because Mr Rapp claimed it happened in a one-bedroom apartment and Mr Spacey lived in a studio.
"He lacks credibility," Mr Steigman said. As for his client, the lawyer said he filed the lawsuit "to hold Kevin Spacey accountable".
"Sometimes the simple truth is the best. The simple truth is that this happened," he said.
During her closing argument, Ms Keller tried to suggest reasons for why Mr Rapp would make up the encounter with Mr Spacey, in which he said Mr Spacey picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed in his apartment.
At the time, Mr Rapp was 14 and Mr Spacey was 26. Mr Rapp testified that he wriggled out and fled the apartment only to encounter an inebriated Mr Spacey at the door asking if he was sure he wanted to leave.
Mr Spacey’s lawyers said it was possible Mr Rapp invented it based on his experience performing in Precious Sons, a play in which actor Ed Harris picks up Mr 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 Mr Rapp later became jealous that Mr Spacey became a megastar while Mr 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," Ms Keller said.
Source: Press Association
