Sexual assault suit against Kevin Spacy dismissed

An actor who claimed Kevin Spacey sexually harassed him when he was 14 had filed a $40 million sexual misconduct case against the Hollywood icon, but a New York court dismissed it on Thursday.

Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the civil lawsuit after a jury determined that Anthony Rapp had failed to establish that the two-time Oscar winner had "touched a sexual or intimate body part." Rapp was suing for compensation for "mental suffering."

The jury "found the defendant not responsible" after roughly one hour of deliberation, according to the US district court for the Southern District of New York.

Following the announcement of the verdict, the 63-year-old star of "Usual Suspects" and "House of Cards" was seen leaving the court without speaking to the media.

Spacey, one of the first celebrities to be implicated in the global #MeToo movement, has separately entered a not-guilty plea to allegations of sexually assaulting three men in Britain between March 2005 and April 2013.

Charges of indecent assault and sexual assault against the actor were dismissed in Massachusetts in 2019.

Rapp, a "Star Trek: Discovery" actor, said that Spacey raped him in 1986 at a party in Manhattan when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.

The 50-year-old actor claimed in his lawsuit that Spacey entered his bedroom as he was watching television, picked him up, lifted him into a bed, and momentarily lay down next to him.

Rapp allegedly stated in a court document that Spacey's hand "grazed" his buttocks while doing so.

Rapp said that during the two-week trial, he "felt immobilised" before he was able to "wiggle his way" out.

Rapp concurred, despite the fact that the incident lasted no longer than two minutes and had "no kissing, no undressing, no reaching undergarments, and no sexualized words or innuendo."

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