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A jury finds that Kevin Spacey didn’t molest actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 : NPR


Actor Kevin Spacey arrives in federal court for a civil trial in New York City on Thursday.

Ted Shaffrey / AP


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Ted Shaffrey / AP


Actor Kevin Spacey arrives in federal court for a civil trial in New York City on Thursday.

Ted Shaffrey / AP

NEW YORK – A jury concluded on Thursday that Kevin Spacey did not molest actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was 14 years old, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in the early years. 1980.

The ruling concludes a trial is an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement.

Arguments began mid-afternoon after Rapp’s attorney, Richard Steigman, urged jurors to pay Spacey for attempting to perform sex acts with Rapp in Spacey’s apartment in Manhattan in 1986 after a party. He accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.

Jennifer Keller, Spacey’s attorney, told jurors that Rapp staged the encounter and said they should dismiss Rapp’s claims.

Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified for several days at the three-week trial. The lawsuit seeks $40 million in damages.

Rapp’s claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted the stellar career of the two-time Oscar-winning actor, who lost his job on Netflix’s “House of Cards” series and saw other opportunities. exhausted. Rapp appeared regularly on TV’s “Star Trek: Discovery” and was part of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”.

In his epilogue, Steigman said that juries should conclude that Spacey lied to them when he asserted that the encounter could not have happened, in part because Rapp claimed it happened in an apartment. bedroom and Spacey live in a studio.

“He lacks credibility,” says Steigman. On his client’s side, 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.

After juries were sent out for deliberations, Keller drew sympathy from U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan when she complained that Steigman had violated trial rules when he was finished. summed it up by telling jurors that he hoped “you don’t let him overlook this. time.”

Kaplan has set rules to prevent jurors from knowing about the sexual abuse allegations against Spacey that were not part of the trial evidence.

Keller called Steigman’s statement “a clear, premeditated attempt to let the jury know” about other claims against Spacey.

“I’m very concerned,” she added, saying it could affect the ruling.

Kaplan responded by saying that Steigman’s claim “shouldn’t have happened” and that if the jury ruled in Rapp’s favor, attorneys may need to present written arguments on the matter. He also said that Rapp in his testimony should not have mentioned that there were other claims made against Spacey.

During the closing argument, Keller tries to suggest why Rapp met with Spacey, in which he says Spacey picked him up and laid him on top of a bed in his apartment. At the time, Rapp was 14 years old and Spacey 26. Rapp testified that he wriggled out and ran out of the apartment only to meet a drunken Spacey at the door asking if he was sure he wanted to leave.

Spacey’s attorney said it’s possible Rapp invented it based on his experience acting in “Precious Sons,” a play in which actor Ed Harris picks Rapp’s character and puts it on him. , mistook him for his wife before discovering it was his son. .

She also suggests that Rapp then got jealous when Spacey became a megastar while Rapp got “smaller roles in small shows” following his breakout performance on 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,” Keller said.

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