Prosecutors in Massachusetts have dropped criminal charges against actor Kevin Spacey, who was accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a bar in July 2016.
The Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office made the announcement Wednesday, days after they informed Spacey’s accuser that they couldn’t pursue a case if he continued to plead the Fifth. The accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify during a July 8 hearing.
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe cited the “unavailability of the complaining witness” in his court filing for dismissal, according to NBC News.
“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,” O’Keefe said.
The accuser’s mother, former Boston TV news anchor Heather Unruh, levied the allegations against Spacey during a press conference in November 2017.
A cell phone the accuser had during the alleged encounter had reportedly disappeared, posing another obstacle for the prosecution.
WCYB reported that both Unruh and the accuser’s father, Nick Little, testified that they didn’t know the phone’s location. Unruh also admitted that she was concerned with some language used on her son’s Venmo account and deleted some content from the device.
“I was a mother who was looking through her son’s phone for the first time and I saw things that concerned me,” she testified.
Meanwhile, Little maintained that he didn’t tell his son to delete text messages nor was he aware of anything being deleted from the phone.
Days before the July 8 hearing, the family dropped their civil suit against Spacey “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled at a later date. The news station reported that Unruh said they didn’t drop the lawsuit due to a settlement.
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[Featured image: Kevin Spacey/AP Photo/Steven Senne, File]
