A New York court has dismissed a $40 million sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against Kevin Spacey by an actor who alleged that the Hollywood star targeted him when he was 14.
A judge discovered that Anthony Rapp, who was seeking damages for “emotional anguish,” was not able to prove that the two-time Oscar winner had “touched a sexual or intimate body part,” leading Judge Lewis Kaplan to dismiss the suit.
After deliberating for around one hour “the jury found the defendant not liable,” according to the US district court for the Southern District of New York.
The 63-year-old star of “Usual Suspects” and “House of Cards” left the court soon after the verdict was announced, without talking to reporters.
As one of the first stars to be caught up in the global #MeToo reckoning, Spacey has separately pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting three men sexually in Britain between March 2005 and April 2013.
Charges of indecent assault and sexual assault against the actor were dropped in Massachusetts in 2019.
Rapp, who stars in the series “Star Trek: Discovery,” alleged he was assaulted by Spacey during a party in Manhattan in 1986 when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.
In his lawsuit, Rapp, now 50, accused Spacey of entering the bedroom where he was watching television, picking him up, lifting him onto a bed and briefly laying down next to him.
According to a court document, Rapp said Spacey’s hand “grazed” his buttocks while laying down beside him.
During the two-week trial, Rapp made it known that he “felt frozen” — till he managed to “wiggle his way” out.
Rapp however agreed there had been “no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothes, and no sexualized statements or innuendo,” during the incident that did not last more than two minutes.
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