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Massachusetts prosecutors have dropped an indecent assault and battery case accusing Kevin Spacey of groping a young man at a Nantucket bar in 2016.
The Cape and Islands district attorney announced the decision today, the Associated Press reports.
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The decision comes after the man accusing Spacey suddenly dropped his civil lawsuit against the Oscar winner. Spacey was accused of getting an 18-year-old man drunk and then groping him at a Nantucket restaurant and bar where the teen worked as a busboy.
Spacey denied the allegations.
The case was crippled after the accuser refused to testify about text messages the defense claims were deleted, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In a July 8 pretrial hearing, the accuser took the Fifth after the ex-House of Cards star’s lead defense attorney warned him that erasing evidence is a chargeable felony in the commonwealth. Spacey himself was not there, but the man and his parents — including his mother, former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh — testified about material they admit was deleted from the then-18-year-old’s iPhone three years ago before being handed over to local police.
The accuser had been ordered to testify about the cellphone he used the night of the alleged assault. He was supposed to turn it over to the defense but said it was missing.
The accuser’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said his client and man’s parents have no recollection of seeing the phone since it was given to authorities back in 2017. Officials have said the phone was returned to the man’s father, but his father does not remember getting the phone back, according to Garabedian.
Deadline’s Dominic Patten contributed to this story.
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