NANTUCKET – Criminal charges of groping against actor Kevin Spacey are being dropped by the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s office.
The announcement of the “nolle prosequi” was made after the alleged victim in the case asserted Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination last week in Nantucket District Court.
The statement from Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said that this past Sunday, the alleged victim, family members, and their attorney met to further review the case in light of the development.
The witness was told that if he chose to continue to invoke his Fifth Amendment right, the case would not be able to go forward.
“After a further period of reflection privately with his lawyer, the complaining witness elected not to waive his right under the Fifth Amendment,” the statement said.
Spacey’s alleged victim accused the House of Cards actor of groping him in a Nantucket bar in 2016.
He asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination last week and refused to testify after being questioned about text messages the defense claims were deleted.
The man’s decision not to testify caused the judge to question the viability of the case against the two-time Oscar winner, whose career collapsed in 2017 amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations.
Spacey’s accuser was ordered to take the stand after he said he lost a cellphone sought by the defense, which says the man deleted messages that support Spacey’s claims of innocence and provided investigators with manipulated screenshots of conversations.
The accuser, speaking publicly for the first time, said he gave police what he had “available” to him “at the time” and did not alter any of the messages.
“I have no knowledge of any deletions of messages on my phone,” the man said.
Spacey pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and battery in January.
After being pressed by Spacey’s lawyer about whether he knew that altering evidence used in a prosecution is a crime, the man invoked his right against self-incrimination, and the judge said his testimony Monday would be stricken from the record.
Spacey’s lawyer urged the judge to dismiss the case, calling it “completely compromised.”
The allegations were first made in 2017 by the man’s mother, former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh.
The accuser’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said they cannot find the phone, but were able to retrieve a copy of its contents that had been backed up to a computer.
But Spacey’s lawyer said that’s not enough.
“None of that answers the central question, which is: Where is the actual phone? That’s what we want. That’s what we’re entitled to, and we still don’t have it,” Attorney Alan Jackson said.
Unruh told investigators that she deleted items concerning her son’s “frat boy activities” from the phone before giving it to authorities. She acknowledged Monday deleting things that “concerned” her but denied touching text messages or anything else relevant to the case.
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