A jury has decided that Kevin Spacey is not guilty of sexually assaulting Anthony Rapp, who was a 14-year-old teenager at the time of their interaction more than 25 years ago. Spacey still has other accusations against him in other cases. 

The jury found that despite the claims made against famous actor Kevin Spacey by a fellow actor, Anthony Rapp, he did not sexually assault Rapp, who was a teenager at the time of the alleged assault, while they were both breaking into the acting industry and were acting in Broadway plays in 1986.

The case, which was tried in a federal court in New York City, ended a little faster than expected as the jurors deliberated on the evidence presented to them for under two hours before deciding that Rapp had not proven to them beyond a reasonable doubt that Spacey had molested him.

After the verdict, Spacey dropped his head in relief and embraced his legal team.

Although Spacey declined to speak to the media as he was leaving the courthouse, his lawyer, Jennifer Keller, expressed the team’s gratitude to the jury for seeing through the false allegations. She said the next step for Spacey was to prove his innocence in all other cases against him and that there was no truth to the allegations.

Keller spoke about numerous other allegations of sexual misconduct against the House of Cards actor, including a few criminal charges in England.

According to Rapp’s testimony, Spacey invited him to a party in his New York apartment in 1986. He told the court that he had excused himself and went to one of the bedrooms in the apartment, where Spacey had joined him later after all the other guests had gone. Rapp claimed that the then 26-year-old Spacey grabbed him, threw him on the bed, and got on top of him. Rapp said he managed to wiggle away and flee but not before Spacey, who looked drunk, asked the 14-year-old if he was sure he wanted to leave.

Spacey, who was tearful when speaking to the jury, told the court that Rapp’s allegations were false and never happened, saying he would never be attracted to a 14-year-old.

The trial lasted three weeks, and the now 50-year-old Rapp and 63-year-old Spacey testified in the case.

Numerous allegations against Spacey of sexual misconduct, including Rapp’s, destroyed Spacey’s acting career when it was at its peak. The Academy Award-winning actor lost his job at the hit series House of Cards on Netflix and many other opportunities as the entertainment industry in Hollywood decided to distance itself from him.

Earlier, Spacey was accused of groping a man in Massachusetts, but prosecutors dropped the case. In July, he entered a not-guilty plea in a London court to sexual assault charges alleging that he assaulted three men between 2004 and 2015.

A Los Angeles judge approved an order for Spacey to pay producers of House of Cards over $30 million for violating his contract and sexually harassing some of the show’s crew.

During his testimony, Spacey said he regretted a statement he made in 2017, just after Rapp made the accusations against him. He apologized publicly to Rapp, saying that he did not recall the incident and that if it had happened, he was sorry for his drunken behavior.

Spacey said that he had only issued the apology because he was under pressure from publicists and lawyers as the #MeToo movement had gained much attention then. He added that he should have never apologized for something he did not do.