SPACEY IN COURT
Surprise appearance in sex misconduct case
Actor Kevin Spacey, who is accused of groping a young man at a bar in Massachu- setts, made an unexpected appearance in court Monday for a hearing in Nantucket as his lawyer accused prosecutors of withholding information from the defense.
The alleged assault took place in 2016 at the Club Car, where the teen worked as a busboy. The man said Spacey bought him drinks and tried to persuade him to go home with him before unzipping his pants and groping him for several minutes.
Spacey was not required to attend the hearing.
His lawyer went on the attack during the lengthy proceeding, calling the accusations “ridiculous” and alleging that prosecutors lied about possession of the victim’s cell phone.
The former “House of Cards” star pleaded not guilty in January to a charge of indecent assault and battery, and his lawyers have called the accusations “patently false.”
Spacey’s lawyer accused the 18-year-old man of deleting texts that support Spacey’s claims of innocence, according to court documents filed Friday. Lawyer Alan Jackson has accused prosecutors of not being truthful about whether they have the teen’s phone. The prosecution says it does not have the phone.
“If I got caught like the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] got caught, I would say miscommunication, too,” Jackson said in court Monday. “But that’s not the truth.”
Jackson asked the judge to demand that prosecutors turn over a “complete and unaltered” forensic copy of the accuser’s phone.
First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny denied his office lied about having access to the phone.
It is just one of multiple sexual misconduct accusations that have been leveled against the Oscar-winning actor, who was written off Netflix’s popular “House of Cards.”