The case, released at the very beginning of the #metoo phenomenon, had made Kevin Spacey a fallen Hollywood star. Its outcome is a victory for the actor of House of Cards.
The popular jury of a civil court in New York dismissed, Thursday, October 20, the actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Kevin Spacey of having subjected him to sexual touching when he was a teenager. The jury rendered its decision after a short deliberation, rejecting the demands of Anthony Rapp, 50, who was claiming 40 million dollars (41 million euros) in damages.
Shortly after the reading of the deliberations, Kevin Spacey left the court, rushing into the back of a black vehicle without making any statements to reporters. Mr. Rapp reportedly exited the back of the Manhattan courthouse and his lawyers didn’t say a word.
“Mr. Spacey is content to live in a country where citizens have the right to be tried by impartial jurors who make their decision on evidence, not rumors or social media”, rejoiced his lawyer, Jennifer Keller. She welcomed in an email to Agence France-Presse a “quick and clear verdict” and “justice has been done”.
The case, revealed at the end of October 2017, at the very beginning of the #metoo phenomenon of free speech on sexual violence, was followed by other accusations of sexual assault against the actor, causing him to be sidelined in the entertainment world.
Other lawsuits against the comedian
But the one who embodied a politician ready to do anything to acquire power in Washington, in the series with the planetary success of Netflix House of Cards, has not finished with the legal troubles. The 63-year-old actor is still being prosecuted for sexual assaults against three men between March 2005 and April 2013, when he was director of a London theater, and for which he pleaded not guilty in July 2022.
In New York, the popular jury of eleven people – the twelfth was sick on Thursday – answered in the negative the question of whether Anthony Rapp, who had filed a complaint in 2020, had demonstrated that “Kevin Spacey had touched his private parts”in May 1986, at a party he gave in his apartment in New York.
Anthony Rapp, who stars in the series Star Trek: Discovery, was then 14 years old, while Kevin Spacey was 26. At the time, one and the other were playing on the boards of Broadway in New York, in two separate shows. The two actors were present throughout the trial, since its beginning on October 6, and maintained their version of the facts.
Anthony Rapp assured that during the evening at Kevin Spacey, the actor had made him suffer a trauma by picking him up in his arms and carrying him “as a groom carries his bride”, before laying him down on his bed and briefly lying against him, fully clothed. According to a June ordinance recording the facts, ” her hand “ had then “rubbed the covering garment for a few seconds [les] butt » by Anthony Rapp.
Spacey vigorously disputes the charges
Kevin Spacey, revealed to the general public for his roles in Seven (1995) and Usual Suspects (1996, Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), then consecrated in 2000 by an Oscar for Best Actor (American Beauty), vigorously contested the charges. “That’s not true! »he assured, Tuesday, during his cross-examination led by the lawyer of Anthony Rapp.
He said he had met Mr. Rapp in May 1986, but with another comedian, John Barrowman, 19 at the time, and that he had flirted with the second but not with the first. Why then did he apologize in October 2017 – while saying he did not remember the facts – when the case was revealed? Mr Spacey explained that he had done so on the recommendation of his agents. At the time, he used the opportunity to reveal his homosexuality, which brought him even more criticism, with some accusing him of trying to divert attention.
In court, Kevin Spacey explained that his homosexuality had always been a difficult subject for him, in particular because of the rejection of his father, whom he described as “white supremacist” and of “neo-Nazi”.