US prosecutors have dropped criminal charges pertaining to former House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey. The 59-year-old allegedly sexually assaulted an 18-year-old waiter at a Nantucket bar in 2016. The alleged victim refused to testify invoking his right under the US Constitution against giving self-incriminating testimony (commonly referred to as “pleading the fifth”).
Massachusetts prosecutors told the court on July 18th that they made the decision to drop the felony indecent assault and battery charge against the Oscar winner. Spacey’s legal team had previously accused the man of deleting text messages that would support the actor’s defence. The man invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a hearing earlier this month concerning the whereabouts of his cell phone, which was missing.
The allegations against Spacey emerged after another actor accused Spacey of trying to seduce him three decades ago when he was 14, leading Netflix to drop Spacey from House of Cards and to his being erased from the film All the Money in the World. The American Beauty actor was among the earliest and most well-known names to be held to justice in the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment.
In 2017, Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp alleged Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was just 14 years old. Rapp alleges that Spacey, aged 26 at the time, made a sexual pass at him at a party in 1986, Buzzfeed News reports.
In a statement on Twitter, Spacey explained that he did not remember the alleged incident, but attributed it to “deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”.
“I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago,” he wrote.
“But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
In his statement, The House Of Cards actor also responded to rumours about his sexuality.
“As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man,” he said.
“I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.”
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