Kevin Spacey stood up, tears in his eyes, hugging his lawyers. An eleven-member jury in a New York court had just acquitted him of allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of molesting him in his New York apartment in 1986. Rapp was 14 at the time, Spacey 26. The jury only needed a good 60 minutes on Thursday to reach their verdict. The fact that things went so quickly at the end of the two-week trial may also have been due to the fact that Rapp’s statements on the witness stand contained some inconsistencies.
More than a dozen men have said they have been sexually harassed by Spacey in recent years. The New York trial was the first trial against him to be tried by a jury. A case pending in California was dropped because the plaintiff died. A Massachusetts case was dismissed because the plaintiff declined to testify after the court advised him that deleting text messages on his phone could have committed a criminal offense. Spacey’s lawyers had argued the messages showed there was no harassment, but instead consensual touching at a bar.
The next trial is scheduled to begin in London in 2023
After the New York acquittal, there are currently no further proceedings against Spacey in the USA. However, he will face further abuse allegations in the UK in the coming year. The trial is scheduled to begin in London in the summer of 2023. From 2003 to 2015, Spacey was artistic director at the renowned Old Vic theatre.
Anthony Rapp first made his allegations against Spacey in a 2017 interview Buzzfeed News raised. It was the peak of the #MeToo movement, during which many actors and actresses also spoke out about a system of harassment in their industry. Spacey tweeted at the time that he had no recollection of the incident, but if anything of the sort happened he owed Rapp a sincere apology.
On the witness stand in New York, he explained that his advisors had urged him not to simply deny the allegations, but to show understanding. The mood in the media, in the public and in the industry was heated. In court, Spacey said he learned one thing: “Never apologize for something you didn’t do.”
Rapp had sued for $40 million in damages. He testified that he attended a party at Spacey’s Manhattan apartment in 1986. He sat in the bedroom and watched TV. After a while, Spacey appeared, apparently drunk, with glassy eyes. Spacey picked him up as one lifts a bride to carry her across the threshold of her new home and laid him on the bed. Then he lay half next to and half on him and pressed the middle of his body against his hip.
The prosecution found no witnesses to the party
Spacey’s attorney Jennifer Keller said, “This story only works if you invent a wall and a door.” She presented the court with a floor plan of Spacey’s apartment at the time. Accordingly, it was a studio apartment in which there was no separate bedroom. In addition, the prosecution could not call witnesses to confirm that there was a party at Spacey’s that Rapp attended.
Attorney Keller came up with another detail. Rapp was in a Broadway play called Precious Sons. In the play, a drunken man, played by Ed Harris, picks up his son, played by Rapp, as you would a bride, mistaking him for his wife. He then lays him on the bed and positions himself on and next to him in a manner that closely parallels Rapp’s accusation against Spacey. Keller concluded that Rapp made the story up. He denied on the witness stand that his role in the play had anything to do with the alleged incident with Spacey.
When Rapp and other men made their allegations against Spacey in 2017, his career in Hollywood ended abruptly. He lost his role in the eminently successful Netflix series House of Cards. Director Ridley Scott even went so far as to take Spacey out of the already finished film All the money in the world cut out completely. All Spacey scenes were reshot over eight days in November 2017 with Christopher Plummer. He was subsequently nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. That should probably be a sign from Hollywood to Spacey, too.
Spacey’s attorney, Keller, said Thursday in New York that she was “very grateful” that the jury “cleared the false allegations.” Rapp’s attorney Richard Steigman said succinctly, “The jury has spoken.”
In the USA, Spacey has legal peace for the time being. In the upcoming proceedings in London, however, there are some much more serious allegations in the room. In addition to four cases of sexual harassment, there is also a case of penetrative sex without consent. Spacey and his attorneys have pleaded not guilty to all counts.