Anthony Rapp

Spacey flatly denied Rapp's allegations, saying under oath that “they are not true.” His lawyers argued that Rapp “created a story” in large part because he ...

Spacey testified that he invited Rapp and Barrowman back to his apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side after the club to introduce them to his dog and show them the views from his place. Rapp, 50, is a series regular on the Paramount+ series "Star Trek: Discovery" and has appeared in films such as "Dazed and Confused" and "A Beautiful Mind." Rapp testified that he did not recognize anyone at the party, so he went into a bedroom to watch television. However, Rapp's lawyers got a chance to question Andy Holtzman, a former employee of Manhattan's Public Theater, who alleges that Spacey assaulted him there in 1981. He testified that he [felt inspired to go public](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-trial-rcna52137) with his claims in the early days of the #MeToo movement in 2017. [He pleaded not guilty](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kevin-spacey-pleads-not-guilty-sexual-assault-charges-uk-court-rcna38161) in July at a hearing at London's Central Criminal Court. [Anthony Rapp alleged](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-trial-rcna50517) that Spacey climbed on top of him at a party in New York City in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. That night, Spacey took Rapp and Rapp's friend John Barrowman to a restaurant and a nightclub. [In a statement on Twitter](https://twitter.com/KevinSpacey/status/924848412842971136) the next day, Spacey said he did not recall the alleged incident but apologized to Rapp for "what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior." Spacey testified that he felt attracted to Barrowman, who was 19 at the time. "I would have never done anything to hurt the gay community," he said, as tears welled up in his eyes. In his testimony, Spacey said he regretted that statement.

The actors both testified in a civil trial this month over accusations of an encounter in 1986.

Mr. Another accuser of Mr. Watching Mr. Spacey, Mr. Several witnesses testified that Mr. Rapp had told them about an encounter with Mr. Rapp describes, and that Mr. When Mr. A lawyer for Mr. Then Mr. The judge ultimately dismissed Mr. Rapp said his encounter with Mr.

A New York City jury found actor Kevin Spacey not liable for the assault and battery of Anthony Rapp on Thursday, after Rapp civilly sued the embattled ...

Spacey was charged earlier this year in the U.K. Spacey’s legal team pointed to alleged inconsistencies in Rapp’s claims, like him recalling the incorrect number of rooms in the apartment Spacey lived in at the time. After spending the night out together with one of Rapp’s friends, Rapp said Spacey invited him to a party at Spacey’s apartment, and Rapp went into a different room to watch TV, where the alleged assault took place. He was previously charged in Massachusetts for an alleged 2016 assault, but prosecutors I was pinned underneath him,” Rapp testified, saying he came forward “because I knew I was not the only one who Kevin Spacey made inappropriate sexual advances to.” In his initial response to the 2017 allegations, Spacey came out as gay and apologized to Rapp, while claiming he didn’t remember the encounter—but at trial, Spacey said he regretted issuing that statement and only released it on the advice of his PR team. Spacey also said at trial he took so long to speak about his sexuality because his father “was a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi” who openly disliked the idea that Spacey could be gay.

Jennifer Keller, a lawyer for Spacey, told jurors that Rapp made up the encounter and said they should reject Rapp's claims.

At the time, Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Rapp is a regular on TV’s Star Trek: Discovery and was part of the original Broadway cast of Rent. The simple truth is that this happened,” he said. 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. Kaplan responded by saying Steigman's statement “shouldn't happen” and that if the jury ruled in Rapp's favour, attorneys may need to make written arguments over the issue. He accused Spacey of lying on the witness stand.

The lawsuit alleged that Spacey sexually assaulted Rapp in 1986 when he was a teenager.

Spacey is awaiting trial in the United Kingdom on five counts of [sexual assault](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/26/kevin-spacey-uk-sexual-assault-charges/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20) related to incidents alleged to have taken place in England between 2005 and 2013, including one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. When Spacey expressed interest in theater, he said, his father “used to yell at me at the idea that I might be gay.” He added that his team advised him to post it because they saw it as the wisest way to manage “a crisis that was going to get worse.” He was fired from the show in 2017 over the sexual harassment allegations and earlier this year ordered to cover resulting losses by [according to](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/kevin-spacey-trial-anthony-rapp-emotional-testimony-1235240059/) the Hollywood Reporter. [was dismissed](https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/06/17/anonymous-accuser-dismissed-from-lawsuit-against-kevin-spacey) from the case last year after U.S. The lawsuit, filed in September 2020, alleged that Spacey placed Rapp on a bed and climbed on top of him in a sexual manner at a party held at Spacey’s Manhattan residence in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. He came out as gay in the same statement. [was dropped](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/07/17/cape-prosecuotors-drop-charge-against-actor-kevin-spacey/SwsMJZtNZ0Jh642UpgGCTO/story.html) in 2019 “due to the unavailability of the complaining witness,” and a lawsuit in California [was dismissed](https://deadline.com/2019/12/kevin-spacey-massage-therapist-sexual-assault-1202818955/) that same year after the accuser died. The actors met while on Broadway. The jury deliberated for a little over an hour. Variety [reported that](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kevin-spacey-trial-anthony-rapp-testify-sexual-assault-traumatic-1235401505/) Rapp described the encounter as “the most traumatic single event of my life.”

Jury deliberated for a little more than an hour before deciding Rapp hadn't proven his allegations.

Spacey also gave courtroom spectators a brief taste of his acting chops when he briefly imitated his Broadway costar at the time, Jack Lemon. Rapp’s claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted what had been a soaring career for the two-time Academy Award winning actor, who lost his job on the Netflix series “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities dry up. He said the actor, then 26, picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed. Rapp and his lawyers also left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. That there was no truth to any of the allegations,” she added, a reference to other sexual misconduct claims against the actor, including criminal charges in England. When the verdict was read, Spacey dropped his head, then hugged his lawyers.

The federal jury in Kevin Spacey's sexual abuse trial found that the Oscar-winning actor is not liable for battery against “Star Trek: Discovery star” ...

He said that he and Barrowman had a brief “flirtatious and playful moment” on a bed that was cut short because Rapp was nearby. However, Rapp’s lawyers got a chance to question Andy Holtzman, a former employee of Manhattan’s Public Theater, who alleges that Spacey assaulted him there in 1981. Rapp testified that he did not recognize anyone at the party, so he went into a bedroom to watch television. Kaplan, the judge in Spacey’s civil trial, did not allow Rapp’s lawyers to talk about the U.K. [He pleaded not guilty](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kevin-spacey-pleads-not-guilty-sexual-assault-charges-uk-court-rcna38161) in July at a hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court. That night, Spacey took Rapp and Rapp’s friend John Barrowman to a restaurant and a nightclub. “I would have never done anything to hurt the gay community,” he said, as tears welled up in his eyes. Spacey testified that he felt attracted to Barrowman, who was 19 at the time. [Rapp alleged](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-trial-rcna50517) that Spacey climbed on top of him at a party in New York City in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. In turn, he chose to take them “seriously but not factually.” “I didn’t want him to do that.” The jury of five men and six women deliberated for just under 90 minutes Thursday afternoon.

Anthony Rapp-Kevin Spacey verdict exonerates Spacey in child sex abuse suit. But it unfairly implicates #MeToo and hurts silent survivors.

There was no reason to allow the trial to demonize a movement that encourages reporting sex crimes and discourages sexual abuse. For the defense in this case, it was a good gamble to appeal to anti-#MeToo sentiment since surveys find that it’s rampant in some populations. [called the Rapp-Spacey trial](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-metoo-trials-harvey-weinstein-danny-masterson-paul-haggis-1235392113/) a #MeToo case raising issues of “power imbalances … As a matter of principle, we should want anyone alleging a sex crime to have the evidence presented to a jury to determine what happened. The jurors should not have been asked — as they effectively were — to put a movement on trial based on innuendo and speculation about its role in Rapp’s suit. There was a lot of fear in the air about who was going to be next.” [ He defiantly proclaimed](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/kevin-spacey-trial-verdict-reached-jurors-sex-abuse-suit-brought-antho-rcna53266) that his lawsuit was “part of the larger movement to stand up against all forms of sexual violence.” But in doing so, it was made to view this evidence through the lens of insinuations about the #MeToo movement and speculation about its impact on Rapp’s allegations. It’s not an accident the jury was put in that position, though. [The focus of the testimony the jury heard](https://apnews.com/article/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-lawsuit-explainer-5c7c5c6dbabb893867423c8b73669b9c) concerned a decades-old allegation of sexual assault when Rapp, then 14, was a guest in Spacey’s apartment. He told the jury he remembered having no interest in Rapp, who was “like a kid” the night he met him. As the proceedings unfolded, it was clear that the #MeToo movement’s legitimate efforts to empower silent survivors of sexual abuses to disclose their suffering and end the scourge of sexual assault were being challenged, too.

After roughly 80 minutes of deliberations, jurors reached a unanimous decision that Rapp's lawyers had failed to prove that Spacey “touched a sexual or intimate ...

Confidential,” as well as the Netflix series “House of Cards.” They noted, for instance, that Rapp described Spacey as having a separate bedroom, when a floor plan that they produced showed that the actor lived in a studio apartment with once central room. “[Kevin Spacey] cannot control his sexual urges when they come up,” Richard Steigman, one of the lawyers on Rapp’s team, said. Rapp first made his claims in a 2017 BuzzFeed article, in which he said that Spacey lifted him up, placed him on his bed, and pinned Rapp down in a sexually aggressive manner. In a statement on social media, Rapp made no direct mention of the verdict, but thanked the jury for hearing the case. After roughly 80 minutes of deliberations, jurors reached a unanimous decision that Rapp’s lawyers had failed to prove that Spacey “touched a sexual or intimate part” of Rapp.

A New York court ruled on Thursday that there was no evidence of actor Kevin Spacey sexually abusing Anthony Rapp in 1986.

He also pledged to advocate “for efforts to ensure we can live and work in a world that is free from sexual violence of any kind.” Rapp said the abuse happened in 1986 when Rapp, then 14, met Spacey at a party in Manhattan. The ruling comes at the end of a three-week civil trial in New York.