Kevin Spacey accuser Anthony Rapp must pay $39K after loss
Kevin Spacey’s accuser must fork over $39,000 to the actor after losing his sexual abuse lawsuit in October, new court papers show.
A Manhattan federal jury cleared the 63-year-old “House of Cards” actor of Anthony Rapp’s allegations that Spacey inappropriately touched him and made unwanted sexual advances in 1986, when Rapp was just 14.
Rapp, 50, sued Spacey for $40 million but the jury found that he shouldn’t be awarded any damages.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal court entered a judgment ordering Rapp to pay the “American Beauty” actor $39,089, the court papers show.
Spacey’s attorney Chase Scolnick lauded the Oct. 20 jury verdict but said the money doesn’t make up for the damage done to his client’s name.
“We are pleased with the jury’s verdict finding Mr. Rapp’s allegations false and the court’s order awarding Mr. Spacey $40,000,” Scolnick said in a statement. “But these costs do little to compensate Mr. Spacey for the harm Mr. Rapp’s false allegations caused him.”
Jurors heard testimony from both Rapp – who starred in the 2005 movie “Rent” – and Spacey during the three-week trial that kicked off on Oct. 6.
Rapp claimed Spacey, then 26, got on top of him and made sexual advances at a party at Spacey’s Manhattan pad when he was 14.
But Spacey’s lawyers claimed Rapp, as a middling actor watching the success of Spacey’s career grow through the decades, allegedly cooked up the false tale of sexual abuse.
Amid the #MeToo movement, Spacey has dodged other sexual assault claims that got him kicked off the hit Netflix show “House of Cards.”
Two men who accused the actor of groping them have died: Writer Ari Behn never took legal action, and a massage therapist’s California federal lawsuit was dropped after his death.
Also, a criminal case on allegations that Spacey groped a man at a Nantucket bar in 2016 was dropped when the accuser refused to testify against the actor.
In Los Angeles, prosecutors declined to bring a case against Spacey over a 1992 claim because the alleged incident was outside the statute of limitations.
One criminal case remains against Spacey in the UK over claims he sexually assaulted several men when he was an artistic director at London’s 200-year-old Old Vic theater between 2005 and 2013. He is out of custody pending his trial, slated for June 6, 2023.
Rapp’s lawyers didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
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