A man who accused actor Kevin Spacey of sexual abuse lost his civil case on Thursday in federal court.
Fellow actor Anthony Rapp had sued Spacey for $40 million, claiming he was sexually assaulted by Spacey in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26, according to the New York Post.
The jury deliberated for a little over an hour on Thursday afternoon after a three-week trial, the Post reported.
“I’m very grateful to the jury for seeing through these false allegations,” said Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Spacey, according to NBC News. Spacey offered no public comment as he left the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
Richard M. Steigman, one of Rapp’s lawyers, said afterward, “The jury has spoken,” according to The New York Times.
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Rapp, who is now 50, testified that Spacey had climbed on top of him and pressed his groin into Rapp’s hip. Spacey denied the claim, Reuters reported.
Rapp told the jury the incident was the “most traumatic event” of his life.
He said he suffered from the incident even years afterward because he recalled it every time he saw Spacey in a film or on TV.
Spacey issued an apology when the allegation was first made.
“I was being encouraged to apologize, and I’ve learned a lesson … which is, never apologize for something you didn’t do,” Spacey testified, according to the Times.
Spacey’s career went downhill after accusations from multiple men that he had sexually abused them. The claims were a factor in Netflix dropping Spacey from its show “House of Cards,” according to Reuters.
Spacey faces a criminal trial in Britain next year on charges of assaults between 2005 and 2013.
Rapp went public with his allegations in 2017 during the early days of the #MeToo movement.
Keller had urged jurors to ignore the wider issues and politics that the case touched on.
“This isn’t a team sport where you’re either on the MeToo side or the other side,” she said, according to Reuters.
Keller also suggested Rapp had a long-term antipathy to Spacey and was jealous of Spacey’s success.
“Mr. Rapp is getting more attention in this trial than he has in his entire acting life,” Keller said.
