ABOVE: Kevin Spacey. Screenshot/ABC News New York.
The federal grand jury hearing the $40 million dollar civil sexual assault lawsuit brought against Kevin Spacey found the actor not liable after about only an hour of deliberations.
Out actor Anthony Rapp had sued Spacey alleging that the two-time Academy Award winning actor had molested him. Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified over several days at the three-week trial.
In court documents, Rapp states that in 1986, Spacey, then 26, invited him, when he as 14, to his Manhattan home where Spacey allegedly assaulted him.
ABC News reported that deliberations began in midafternoon after a lawyer for Rapp, Richard Steigman, urged jurors to make Spacey pay for trying to make a sexual advance on Rapp in Spacey’s Manhattan apartment in 1986 after a party. He accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.
The Associated Press reported when the verdict was read, Spacey dropped his head, then hugged his lawyers. He didn’t speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.
“We’re very grateful to the jury for seeing through these false allegations,” said his attorney, Jennifer Keller.
“What’s next is Mr. Spacey is going to be proven that he’s innocent of anything he’s been accused of. That there was no truth to any of the allegations,” she added, a reference to other sexual misconduct claims against the actor, including criminal charges in England.
Rapp released a statement after the verdict on Twitter:
— Anthony Rapp SAG-AFTRA National Board Member (@albinokid) October 20, 2022
