USA TODAY International Edition
Drama marks Spacey hearing
NANTUCKET, Mass. – The Kevin Spacey sexual assault case has shifted dramatically after the man accusing the actor of groping exercised his Fifth Amendment rights, a move that could lead to its eventual dismissal.
What was scheduled as a hearing Monday for the accuser to produce a crucial missing cellphone turned into much more – and it might have exposed cracks in Massachusetts’ case against the Academy Award-winning actor.
The hearing had it all: a heated exchange between Spacey’s attorney Alan Jackson and the accuser’s father; an admission from the mother, former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh, that she indeed did delete some material from her son’s cellphone; and the decision from the accuser, William Little, 21, to cut short his testimony.
Meanwhile, the phone remains missing.
Here are six moments to note from Monday’s hearing:
1. Accuser invokes the Fifth after testifying
Spacey, 59, faces a felony indecent assault charge that he groped Little, then an 18-year-old busboy in a bar on the Massachusetts resort island in July 2016. He has pleaded not guilty.
For the first time, Little took the stand in the case to testify, answering a lengthy set of questions from Jackson about text messages from his cellphone that weren’t among a series of screenshots he provided law enforcement during the investigation.
Little used the iPhone to send texts and videos to his girlfriend and to friends during the alleged three-minute assault. But Jackson noted the screenshots included a text where he wrote “Save me” but did not include texts from his girlfriend urging him to get away, among other discrepancies.
As he was grilled by Jackson, Little seemed to acknowledge that the screenshots didn’t contain all the text messages between him and his girlfriend from the night of the alleged assault – although he continued to say that it wasn’t the result of any deletions but rather other circumstances.
At that point, Jackson asked whether he was aware that deleting evidence is a crime. The accuser responded that he’s aware now.
The exchange prompted Judge Thomas Barrett to break into a lengthy recess. When the court was called back into session, he announced a bombshell – that the accuser has opted to invoke
his Fifth Amendment rights, striking the testimony that he had just given from the court’s record.
2. Judge hints he might dismiss the case
With the key witness in the case unwilling to testify, Jackson quickly called for the case to be dismissed.
“This entire case is completely compromised. This case needs to be dismissed, and it needs to be dismissed today,” Jackson said.
The judge also cast doubt on the state’s case moving forward. Barrett said the case “may well be dismissed” if the accuser refuses to testify. “The case revolves around this individual, and without him the Commonwealth will have a tough row to hoe.”
Still, Barrett opted against ruling on the dismissal Monday.
Jackson told reporters he plans to file the motion to dismiss this month. The judge set the next hearing for July 31.
3. Judge threatens to hold father in contempt of court
The accuser’s father, Nick Little, was combative throughout his testimony, prompting Barrett to threaten to hold him in contempt on multiple occasions.
Nick Little took the stand after his son had pleaded the Fifth. Visibly upset, he objected to several questions posed by Spacey’s attorney, Jackson.
“What’s your questions?” Nick Little said, starting off the heated exchange.
“Mr. Little, I’ll ask the questions, and you answer the questions,” Jackson said.
Nick Little said he looked at the text messages his son sent to his then-girlfriend after his son told them about the alleged assault. He said he looked at them with his wife.
“I looked at the message that said, ‘Help me.’ Does that help you?” ... I think this has gone way too far.”
A police security officer walked over to stand between the witness stand and Jackson as tempers continued to flare.
At one point, Nick Little started talking about specifics of the alleged assault, prompting the judge to say: “This is not about that at this moment. It’s about what you know.
“You continue to go beyond the limits of the question,” the judge said, raising his voice.
4. Mother admits to deleting items from phone
Despite her son’s decision to exercise his Fifth Amendments rights, Unruh chose to testify. She and her son are the only two people who had access to the password to the missing cellphone, Spacey’s attorneys have noted.
“I have nothing but the truth to tell,” she said to the judge, starting to cry.
Unruh admitted deleting material she had described as “frat boy activities” from his phone. The material included photos of Little drinking under age and smoking marijuana and racist lyrics that a friend sent to her son on Venmo.
She said she was “concerned” as a mother. “I deleted a few things,” she said. But she was adamant that none of the deletions were of texts exchanged on the night of the alleged assault. She also testified she did not order her son to delete any of those texts.
“Definitely not,” she said. “I thought those text messages were incredibly important to the case.”
Jackson highlighted a text message she sent to her son before the cellphone was handed to investigators in which she told him, “I think your pictures are still ending up on the old phone, not the messages, the pics.”
Jackson said it was evidence that she and her son discussed which photos and messages would end up being on the phone given to prosecutors.
Unruh testified that she went through every video on his phone because she was looking for a video of Spacey putting his hands down his son’s pants.
Jackson also asked Unruh to look at photos she had deleted of her son drinking underage.
He speculated that the photos didn’t fit with the narrative they told police about an older man, allegedly Spacey, supplying her son with alcohol.
“That was not my motivation,” Unruh said in response. “I was a mother looking through my son’s phone for the first tine, and there were things that concerned me.
“It was not relevant to the case.” “So says you,” Jackson said, adding that she doesn’t get to decide what’s relevant.
5. No settlement in civil lawsuit after all
Monday’s hearing came just days after the accuser abruptly dropped a civil lawsuit against Spacey that was filed in June over the same alleged sexual assault.
The family’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, in a filing last week, said the dismissal is made “with prejudice,” meaning the lawsuit cannot be filed again, and “without costs to any party.”
It led some in the media to speculate that Spacey and the accuser had reached a settlement.
Jackson asked Unruh to address the speculation. And surprisingly, she decided to answer.
“There’s been no settlement,” Unruh said. “Would you like me to explain why?”
But Jackson was finished with his questions before she could continue.
6. Trooper says he was ‘remiss’ in handling of phone with family
Police trooper Gerald Donovan testified that he returned the phone to the Little family after the investigation but was “remiss” and did not have them sign a receipt. He said he returned the phone during a trip to their house and that it would be “inaccurate” for the father to say he didn’t receive it.
But Nick Little has said he cannot recall receiving the phone.
Donovan said there’s no protocol for turning back evidence in such base. But Spacey’s defense jumped on this point.
“Of course, there’s a protocol that should be in place,” Jackson said. “And if there’s not one, we end up with a disaster like this.
“Guess who loses because of this? That would be us because we are entitled to the phone.”
Donovan, describing the 2017 investigation into the alleged assault, said the mother told him she deleted “frat boy activities” that were on the phone. Jackson asked Donovan why he didn’t tell the family to not delete any material from the phone.
“In retrospect, do you think that would have been a wise decision?” Jackson said.
“Sitting here now? Sure.” Donovan said.
Jackson questioned Donovan for returning the phone to Unruh after shea dmitted to deleting some material.
Donovan said he did so because the accuser was a “victim” who was cooperating.
Jackson countered: “He was a claimed victim. You hadn’t completed the investigation.”