Spacey sex assault case dropped as alleged victim refuses to testify

PROSECUTORS in Nantucket have dropped their sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey, after the accuser said he no longer wished to proceed.

The 59-year-old actor was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old in a bar on the island, in Massachusetts, US, in 2016.

Spacey insisted in court filings that the pair spent an enjoyable night together and engaged in “mutual and consensual flirting”.

The accuser told police that he had texted his girlfriend during the encounter. The phone was handed over to police, but then disappeared. Police insisted it was returned to the family; the family say it was not.

Moreover, the accuser’s mother admitted to deleting some “frat boy” material on the phone – an admission seized upon by Spacey’s legal team.

After being questioned about text messages, the alleged victim asserted his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination and refused to testify further.

Yesterday, Michael O’keefe, the Cape and Islands district attorney, said he was filing a nolle prosequi – a legal term used to describe the abandoning

‘You’re dealing with a young person who was perhaps not entirely straightforward with his mother’

of a case – “due to the unavailability of the complaining witness”.

On Sunday, prosecutors met the accuser and his family.

“The complaining witness was informed that if he chose to continue to invoke his Fifth Amendment right, the case would not be able to go forward,” said Mr O’keefe.

Adam Citron, a former assistant district attorney in Westchester County with and now senior counsel at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, said the family and prosecutors “likely saw which way the case was headed.”

“They knew what was on the cell phones,” he said. “You’re dealing with a young person who was perhaps not entirely straightforward with his mother.

“But I’m surprised at this outcome … you would have thought they would have dealt with this issue before it transpired.”

The development comes about two weeks after the accuser dropped the civil lawsuit he had filed against Spacey.

Mitchell Garabedian, lawyer for the accuser, said the case was dropped because the accuser was on an “emotional roller-coaster”.

Spacey has been accused by over a dozen men of sexual assault or harassment, but has vehemently denied the accusations. Only the Nantucket case has proceeded towards criminal trial, due to the statute of limitations expiring in other cases.