Actor loses civil lawsuit alleging sex abuse with Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey on Thursday thwarted a sexual abuse trial against him after a jury in the Manhattan civil trial found his accuser failed to prove his allegations that the Oscar-winner made an unwanted sexual advance to him when he was 14.

The verdict followed a three-week trial in federal court in Manhattan and came about two hours after the jury began deliberating.

Anthony Rapp, now 50, testified that Spacey climbed onto him on a bed and pressed his abdomen against Rapp’s waist until he could wriggle free. Spacey denied the allegation on the witness stand, saying he was never alone with Rapp.

A tearful Spacey, the former star of Netflix US political drama House of Cards, appeared briefly in the hall outside the courtroom but re-entered. He declined to answer reporters’ questions after his departure.

Spacey’s attorney, Jennifer Keller, told reporters her client was grateful that the jury “cleaned up on these false allegations.”

“Next, Mr. Spacey will prove himself innocent of everything he is accused of,” Keller said.

Spacey faces criminal charges in London next year after pleading not guilty to five sex offense charges between 2005 and 2013.

Keller argued during her closing arguments that Rapp’s story was fabrication. She offered several theories as to why Rapp might have lied, including wanting attention or being jealous of Spacey’s acting success.

“Mr. Rapp gets more attention in this process than he has in his entire acting life,” Keller said.

During closing arguments, Rapp’s attorney asked the jury to discredit Spacey’s recollection of the events. “It’s inconsistent. It’s not worthy of your belief,” attorney Richard Steigman said, allegedly citing gaps in Spacey’s memory and changes in his memory. Steigman declined to comment after the verdict.

Spacey won Oscars for performances on “American Beauty” and “The Usual Suspects,” but his career largely ended after more than 20 men accused him of sexual misconduct.

Netflix dropped him from House of Cards and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World weeks before the film’s scheduled release in 2017.

Spacey’s defense questioned Rapp’s recollection of the 1986 encounter and asked why he described it as taking place in a bedroom when Spacey lived in a studio at the time.

Keller argued that Rapp’s memory of meeting Spacey resembled a scene in the play Rapp was then in, in which an older male actor picks him up and lays him on a bed.

The trial in Manhattan federal court began Oct. 6, nearly five years after Spacey’s career was turned upside down by allegations of sexual misconduct in the early days of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse by celebrities and voice powerful personalities. Men have also reported abuse allegations.

Spacey has denied any wrongdoing.

Keller asked the jury to ignore the case’s sex politics.

“This isn’t a team sport where you’re either on the MeToo side or the other side,” Keller said.

Rapp sued Spacey in November 2020 for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

During the trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds of emotional distress but allowed the remainder of the lawsuit to proceed.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Jody Godoy, and Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, David Bario, Alistair Bell, and Mark Porter)