Court orders Spacey to steer clear of sex assault victim

NANTUCKET: Kevin Spacey must stay away from the young man who accused him of groping him at a Massachusetts bar in 2016, a judge ordered.

The disgraced actor was arraigned on a charge of felony indecent assault and battery during a hearing at Nantucket District Court yesterday. He did not enter a plea.

The judge set another hearing for March 4. Spacey did not have to appear, the judge ruled, but said he had to be available by phone.

The judge granted a request by Spacey’s lawyers to preserve the victim’s cellphone data for six months after the alleged assault.

Spacey’s attorney Alan Jackson said there was data that was “likely exculpatory” for the actor.

Spacey and his lawyers declined to comment as they left the courthouse amid a crush of reporters.

The hearing comes more than a year after a former Boston TV anchor accused the former House of Cards star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where he worked as a busboy.

Jackson has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager did not immediately report the allegations.

If convicted, Spacey faces as many as five years in prison.

Spacey has said he intends to plead not guilty.

The civil attorney for the accuser said in a statement ahead of the hearing that his client is “leading by example”.

“By reporting the sexual assault, my client is a determined and encouraging voice for those victims not yet ready to report being sexually assaulted,” said lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of clergy sexual abuse victims.

Garabedian is not part of the criminal case against Spacey.

Media trucks lined the street before dawn and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quiets down in the winter, drove by to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold.

When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear.

It is the first criminal case brought against Spacey, 59, since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017.

A judge denied Spacey’s bid to avoid appearing in person yesterday as his presence would “amplify the negative publicity already generated” by the case. Television anchor Heather Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the incident. She said her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the bathroom.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people alleging sexual assault.

Spacey has also faced other allegations. His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when he was 14 and Spacey 26.

Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter, but apologised if the allegations were true.