October 22, (THEWILL) – Kevin Spacey has secured another legal win.
The actor has been cleared by a New York jury that sided with the 63-year-old in a federal civil case brought by Anthony Rapp, 50.
Recall that Rapp sued Spacey in 2020, claiming the two-time Oscar winner sexually assaulted him more than three decades ago when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Rapp’s claims came at the peak of the #MeToo movement; he said the assault took place in 1986, following a party at Spacey’s NYC apartment.
Spacey denied the story.
“It felt very wrong,” Rapp told the jury during the three-week trial.
“I didn’t want him to do it, and I had no reason that made any sense of why he would do it. I felt like a deer in headlights…I didn’t ask for him to do that. I didn’t want him to do that.
“This isn’t a team sport where you’re either on the Me Too side, or you’re on the other side,” Spacey’s attorney Jennifer Keller told the jury.
“This is a very different place. Our system requires evidence, proof, and objective support for accusations provided to an impartial jury. However polarised as society may be today, it really should not have a place here. We’re here because Mr Rapp has falsely alleged abuse that never occurred at a party that was never held in a room that did not exist.”
The jury sided with Spacey.
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