A jury in New York on Thursday found that actor Kevin Spacey did not molest fellow actor Anthony Rapp when he was 14 years old.
Rapp, 50, had brought a $40 million lawsuit against Spacey, 63, claiming that Spacey had preyed on him during the 1980s when both were relatively unknown actors on Broadway.
Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes before deciding unanimously that Spacey was not liable for sexual battery.
Rapp's attorney Richard Steigman urged the jury "to hold Spacey accountable" for trying to make a sexual advance on his client after a party at Spacey's Manhattan apartment in 1986.
Steigman told jurors they should conclude that Spacey lied to them when he insisted that the encounter could not have happened, in part because Rapp claimed it happened in a one-bedroom apartment and Spacey lived in a studio.
"He lacks credibility," Steigman said, referring to Spacey's testimony. "Sometimes the simple truth is the best. The simple truth is that this happened."
After the jury was sent away to deliberate, Steigman broke trial rules when he finished his summation by telling jurors that he hopes "you don't let him (Spacey) get away with it this time."
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had put those rules in place during the three-week trial to keep jurors from learning about sex abuse accusations made against Spacey that were not part of the trial evidence.
"I'm very concerned," said Spacey's attorney Jennifer Keller, who called Steigman's statement "another clear, premeditated attempt to let the jury know" about other claims against her client.
Rapp's allegations were among several against Spacey which abruptly ended the two-time Academy Award-winning actor's involvement in the Netflix hit series House of Cards and virtually saw Spacey shunned by Hollywood.
Keller suggested during the trial that Rapp became jealous of Spacey's stardom while Rapp had "smaller roles in small shows."
"So here we are today and Mr. Rapp is getting more attention from this trial than he has in his entire acting life," said Keller.
