Kevin Spacey was found not responsible for violence in a sexual assault lawsuit filed by actor Anthony Rapp in Manhattan.
Rapp filed a lawsuit against Spacey in 2020, alleging that the then-26-year-old actor sexually abused him during a 1986 New York City apartment party when Rapp was 14 years old.
Rapp, who portrayed Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of “Rent,” initially made the allegation in a BuzzFeed News article published in 2017 at the height of the Me Too movement. He claimed that Spacey lifted him onto a bed, grazed his buttocks, and then climbed on top of him, pressing his groin against his hip, before Rapp fled the room.
After a two-week trial in Manhattan federal court and less than an hour of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict.
Rapp testified that he was “locked” in dread during the meeting and felt as if he had been poked with a “cattle prod” when he first encountered Spacey following the event in “Working Girl.”
Spacey cried on the stand as he expressed his apologies over releasing a statement in response to Rapp’s allegations that did not categorically refute the allegation.
Following the BuzzFeed article, Spacey published a statement on Twitter stating that he “honestly” did not recall the interaction, but “if I did behave” as Rapp reported, “I owe him the deepest apologies.”
Spacey stated that his PR staff encouraged him to apologize in order to avoid being called a “victim-blamer.”
Andy Holtzman, who accused Spacey of grabbing him in his office at New York’s Public Theater in 1981, and John Barrowman, widely known for his portrayal as “Doctor Who” and a high school buddy of Rapp’s, also testified before the jury.
In 2017, Spacey’s career came to an abrupt halt because to Rapp’s allegations. He was sacked from his main role in the Netflix series “House of Cards” and digitally removed from the film “All the Money in the World” as J. Paul Getty.
In June, Spacey will stand trial in the United Kingdom on criminal sexual-assault accusations brought by three men who accused him of sexual misbehavior while he was artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London.