Kevin Spacey has appeared in a Massachusetts courthouse today in a pre-trial hearing where the actor is accused of groping a young man in 2016.
Spacey was not required to attend but appeared at the courthouse with his lawyers. The 59-year-old former House of Cards actor did not make any comment during his appearance.
Previously, Spacey has pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecent assault and battery. If convicted, he faces up to two and a half years in prison.
The alleged victim is the son of former news anchor Heather Unruh, who spoke about the incident last year. She claimed Spacey had bought her then-18-year-old son alcohol, despite him being three years below the legal age, before groping him.
Spacey was removed from House Of Cards after allegations of sexual misconduct were first made against him in 2017. Actor Anthony Rapp first accused him of making sexual advances to him in 1986, with numerous other claims following. In two separate statements, the House Of Cards star said he did not recall the incident with Rapp and, later, that he was “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”
In new court documents filed last Friday (May 31), Spacey’s lawyer Alan Jackson questioned the credibility of the alleged victim, claiming that he deleted text messages that support Spacey’s claims of innocence.
His lawyers have termed the allegations “patently false” and urged prosecutors to supply a “complete and unaltered” forensic copy of the alleged victim’s mobile phone records. The lawyer added that new evidence confirms he “deleted exculpatory text messages and provided falsified screenshots of his conversation in question to law enforcement.”
In the clip titled “Let me be Frank”, Spacey said: “Of course, some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They’re just dying to have me declare everything you said is true and that I got what I deserved. Wouldn’t that be easy if it was all so simple?
“Only you and I both know it’s never that simple, not in politics and not in life. But you wouldn’t believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn’t rush to judgements without facts, would you? Did you? No, not you. You’re smarter than that.
“Anyway, all this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending and to think it could have been such a memorable send-off. I mean, if you and I have learnt nothing else these past few years, it’s that in life and art nothing should be off the table. We weren’t afraid – not of what we did and what we said, and we’re still not afraid. Because I can promise you this – if I didn’t pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn’t do.”