By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of many lawsuits that derailed the movie star’s profession, discovering he didn’t sexually abuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, whereas each had been comparatively unknown actors in Broadway performs in Eighties.
The verdict within the civil trial got here with lightning velocity. Jurors at a federal courtroom in New York deliberated for a little bit greater than an hour earlier than deciding that Rapp hadn’t confirmed his allegations.
When the decision was learn, Spacey dropped his head. Then he hugged attorneys and others earlier than leaving the courtroom.
During the trial, Rapp had testified that Spacey invited him to his house for a celebration, then approached him in a bed room after the opposite visitors left. He mentioned the actor, then 26, picked him up and briefly laid on high of him on a mattress.
Rapp testified that he wriggled away and fled as an inebriated Spacey requested if he was certain he needed to depart.
In his sometimes-tearful testimony, Spacey instructed the jury it by no means occurred, and he by no means would have been drawn to somebody who was 14.
The lawsuit sought $40 million in damages.
In his closing statements to the jury Thursday, Rapp’s lawyer, Richard Steigman, accused Spacey of mendacity on the witness stand.
“He lacks credibility,” Steigman mentioned. “Sometimes the simple truth is the best. The simple truth is that this happened,” he mentioned.
Spacey’s lawyer, Jennifer Keller, instructed jurors that Rapp made up the encounter and mentioned they need to reject Rapp’s claims.
During her closing argument, she urged causes Rapp imagined the encounter with Spacey or made it up.
It was potential, she mentioned, that Rapp invented it primarily based on his expertise performing in “Precious Sons,” a play through which actor Ed Harris picks up Rapp’s character and lays on high of him, mistaking him briefly for his spouse earlier than discovering it’s his son.
She additionally urged that Rapp later turned jealous that Spacey turned a megastar whereas Rapp had “smaller roles in small shows” after his breakthrough efficiency in Broadway’s “Rent.”
“So here we are today and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this trial than he has in his entire acting life,” Keller mentioned.
Rapp, 50, and Spacey, 63, every testified over a number of days on the three-week trial.
Rapp’s claims, and people of others, abruptly interrupted what had been a hovering profession for the two-time Academy Award successful actor, who misplaced his job on the Netflix collection “House of Cards” and noticed different alternatives dry up. Rapp is an everyday on TV’s “Star Trek: Discovery” and was a part of the unique Broadway forged of “Rent.”
After jurors had been despatched away to deliberate, Keller drew sympathy from U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan when she complained that Steigman broke trial guidelines when he completed his summation by telling jurors that he hopes “you don’t let him get away with it this time.”
Kaplan had set guidelines that had been meant to maintain jurors from studying about intercourse abuse accusations made towards Spacey that weren’t a part of the trial proof.
Keller known as Steigman’s assertion “another clear, premeditated attempt to let the jury know” about different claims towards Spacey.
“I’m very concerned,” she added, saying it may have an effect on the decision.
Kaplan responded by saying Steigman’s assertion “shouldn’t happen” and that if the jury dominated in Rapp’s favor, attorneys could have to make written arguments over the difficulty. He additionally mentioned that Rapp throughout his testimony mustn’t have talked about that there have been different claims made towards Spacey.
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This story has been up to date to right the day of the week within the lead paragraph to Thursday, not Tuesday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”