Kevin Spacey accuser Anthony Rapp ordered to pay $39K after jury dismisses sexual abuse claims
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Kevin Spacey's accuser, Anthony Rapp, was ordered to pay him $39,000 after losing his sexual abuse lawsuit in October, according to newly released court documents. Rapp, 50, claimed that Spacey, 63, inappropriately grabbed him and made unwanted sexual advances in 1986, when Rapp was only 14 years old. However, a federal jury in Manhattan found the actor not guilty.
Rapp sued Spacey for $40 million, but the jury decided that Rapp was not entitled to any compensation. On Thursday, December 1, a federal judge in Manhattan ordered Rapp to pay the 'American Beauty' star $39,089, according to court records. Spacey's attorney, Chase Scolnick, praised the jury's verdict from October 20, but asserted that the money won't make up for the damage done to his client's reputation. Scolnick said in a statement, "We are pleased with the jury's verdict finding Mr. Rapp's allegations false and the court's order awarding Mr. Spacey $40,000. But these costs do little to compensate Mr. Spacey for the harm Mr. Rapp's false allegations caused him."
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Both Rapp and Spacey testified during the three-week trial that began on October 6. Rapp had claimed that while they were at a party at Spacey's Manhattan apartment, Spacey, who was 26 at the time, leaped on top of him and made sexual advances.
However, Spacey's attorneys claimed that Rapp created the fake account of sexual assault while seeing Spacey's career grow when he was still a supporting actor. Spacey has refuted additional allegations of sexual assault that led to his dismissal from the popular Netflix series 'House of Cards' during the #MeToo movement.
Two men who claimed the 'Margin Call' star had inapropriately touched them have died. Writer Ari Behn never took legal action, and a massage therapist's federal case in California was dismissed after his death. A criminal case concerning allegations that Spacey improperly touched a man at a Nantucket bar in 2016 was also dropped because the victim declined to testify against the actor.
Spacey is still facing one criminal case in the UK following allegations that he sexually assaulted several men between 2005 and 2013 while serving as artistic director for London's 200-year-old Old Vic theater. He is not in custody until his trial, which is scheduled for June 6, 2023.