A New York court dismissed a $40 million sexual misconduct civil complaint filed against Kevin Spacey by an actor who claimed the Hollywood star sexually molested him when he was 14 years old in 1985. The trial had been going on for three weeks, with both sides giving testimony.
The accuser, now an actor, alleged that they had gone to Kevin’s house with another buddy, actor John Barrowman, who was 19 at the time, and that Kevin had improperly touched and laid next to him. He had sued Kevin in the civil suit for “emotional pain.” A jury, however, determined that the prosecution had failed to prove that the two-time Oscar winner had “touched a sexual or intimate bodily part,” prompting Judge Lewis Kaplan to dismiss the case.
According to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, after roughly an hour of deliberation, “the jury held the defendant not responsible.” The 63-year-old was seen exiting the courtroom shortly after the verdict was read. He did not, however, address the media that were waiting outside. Later, in a statement, his lawyer stated, “Mr. Spacey is grateful to live in a democracy where citizens have the right to trial by unbiased jurors who make their choice based on evidence and not gossip or social media.”
The accuser’s attorney, Peter Saghir, told the news agency AFP that his client “told his truth in court.” According to the statement, “although we accept the jury’s ruling, nothing changes what occurred to him.” In his lawsuit, the actor, now 50, claimed Kevin Spacey of entering his bedroom while he was watching TV, scooping him up, lifting him into a bed, and momentarily laying down next to him. He stated that while doing so, the senior actor’s hand grazed his buttocks.
When the allegations originally appeared in 2017, Kevin Spacey rejected them, claiming he had no recall of them. As a direct result of the allegations, he was sacked from his Netflix show House of Cards and the film All the Money in the World. He was chastised for only offering a half-apology at the time. During cross-examination in New York earlier this week, Kevin Spacey stated that the allegations left him “shocked, afraid, and disoriented,” and that he gave a public apology, which he now regrets.
He was also accused of sexually abusing three males in the United Kingdom between March 2005 and April 2013. In 2019, a Massachusetts court dismissed the accusations as well.