On Thursday, a New York judge rejected Kevin Spacey’s defense of a $40 million sexual misconduct claim. The actor who made the claim stated that when he was 14 years old, the Hollywood star targeted him.
Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the civil lawsuit after a jury found that Anthony Rapp had not established that the two-time Oscar winner had “touched a sexual or intimate bodily part.” Rapp sought damages for “emotional suffering” in his lawsuit.
“The jury held the defendant not responsibly”
According to the US district court for the Southern District of New York, after roughly an hour of deliberation, “the jury held the defendant not responsible.”
After the verdict was announced, the 63-year-old “Usual Suspects” and “House of Cards” star was seen leaving the court without speaking to the media.
His lawyer said in a statement that “Mr Spacey is grateful to live in a country where the citizens have a right to trial by impartial jurors who make their decision based on evidence and not rumour or social media.” “Their verdict was swift and decisive.”
Spacey was one of the first well-known figures to be associated with the #MeToo movement globally
Spacey, one of the first well-known figures to be associated with the #MeToo movement globally, has separately pleaded not guilty to accusations of sexually assaulting three men in Britain between March 2005 and April 2013.
In Massachusetts in 2019, accusations of indecent assault and sexual assault against the actor were dropped. Rapp, an actor on “Star Trek: Discovery,” said that Spacey sexually assaulted him in 1986 in Manhattan at a party when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.
The 50-year-old actor contended in his lawsuit that Spacey came into his bedroom while he was watching television, scooped him up, hoisted him into a bed, and briefly sat down next to him. A court document states that Rapp asserted Spacey’s hand “grazed” his buttocks while doing this.