Actor Kevin Spacey charged with indecent assault in Massachusetts

(Reuters) - Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey has been charged in connection with an allegation that he sexually abused an 18-year-old boy at a Nantucket, Massachusetts, bar more than two years ago, the local district attorney said yesterday.

Spacey is scheduled to be arraigned at Nantucket District Court on Jan. 7 on a single charge of indecent assault and battery on a person who is at least 14 years old, according to court documents and a statement issued by Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe.

An attorney for Spacey did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The actor, however, released a video on YouTube on Monday in which he adopts the persona of his character Frank Underwood in the popular Netflix TV series “House of Cards” and says, “I know what you want, you want me back ... You wouldn’t rush to judgments without facts, would you?”

The 3-minute video makes no specific reference to the Massachusetts allegation.

The charge against Spacey, 59, whose full name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, was filed after a Dec. 20 hearing, O’Keefe said. The name on the complaint was Kevin S. Fowler.

The charge against Spacey follows an allegation in November 2017 by Boston television journalist Heather Unruh that her 18-year-old son was sexually assaulted by the actor at the Club Car restaurant and bar in Nantucket on July 7, 2016.

At a news conference in which she made the allegations, Unruh said her “star struck” son falsely told the actor he was old enough to drink when he met him at the bar. The legal age to drink alcoholic beverages in Massachusetts is 21.

‘DRINK AFTER DRINK’

“Kevin Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink, and when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him,” Unruh said at the 2017 news conference.