Kevin Spacey did not molest Anthony Rapp, New York jury finds

A jury concluded Tuesday that Kevin Spacey did not molest actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was 14, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in the 1980s.

The verdict in federal court in Manhattan brings to a conclusion a civil trial that was an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement. The lawsuit, based on 2017 claims by Rapp, sought $40m in damages.

Deliberations lasted just over an hour. When the verdict was read, Spacey dropped his head, and then hugged lawyers and others before leaving the courtroom.

Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, each testified over several days at the three-week trial. The lawsuit sought $40m in damages.

In his closing, Steigman said jurors should conclude that Spacey lied to them when he insisted that the encounter could not have happened, in part because Rapp claimed it happened in a one-bedroom apartment and Spacey lived in a studio.

During her closing argument, Keller tried to suggest reasons for why Rapp would make up the encounter with Spacey, in which he said Spacey picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed in his apartment. At the time, Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Rapp testified that he wriggled out and fled the apartment only to encounter an inebriated Spacey at the door asking if he was sure he wanted to leave.