A criminal case targeting Kevin Spacey is on shaky ground after Spacey's accuser pleaded the Fifth. A civil case against Spacey involving the same accuser was dismissed last week.
The case involves the son of Heather Unruh, a former Boston TV anchor, who claimed that Spacey groped him at a bar on Nantucket in 2016.
In January, Spacey pleaded not guilty to charges that he forcefully put his hands down the 18-year-old's pants. Spacey also challenged the Nantucket allegations in a weird video titled “Let Me Be Frank” uploaded to an unverified YouTube account in late December.
The phone which allegedly contained evidence of the assault, is missing in the case, so Unruh, the accuser, and the accuser's father were forced to testify about its contents.
The accuser Pleaded the Fifth and couldn't recall how many times Unruh saw the phone, or if she asked him to delete anything on it. He said he couldn't find certain text messages and denied having any knowledge of deletions on the phone, though in one of the three screenshots presented as evidence, half the conversation is missing.
The accuser and Unruh said they gave a cell phone to prosecutors shortly after going to the police and say they never got it back.
Their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, provided back-up files from the accuser's Macbook. A state trooper testified that he gave the phone back to the family, but there is no record of it. Another officer testified that he saw the state trooper give the phone back to the family.
The state trooper said that Unruh told him that she had deleted “frat boy activities” that were in the phone's files before handing it over, and the state trooper said he took her at her word.
The judge threatened to hold the accuser's father in contempt after he took the stand and had an outburst at Spacey's defense attorney, and claimed that his son had shown him text messages that indicated he needed help. He also testified that he has no idea where the phone is, nor did he tell his son to dispose of it.
Legal experts say the case will most likely get tossed.
Said WBZ legal expert Jennifer Roman: “At this point, this case is done. It's over with. It's going to be dismissed. [The accuser] did some things that were clearly, potentially would have exposed him to criminal sanctions, and he chose not to testify as a result there of. [Unruh] tampered with evidence. That's hugely problematic and that alone could get the case thrown out. She could face charges. There's a potential of an obstruction of justice charge.”
In November 2018, an allegation against Spacey by actor Anthony Rapp snowballed into an avalanche of similar accusations including filmmaker Tony Montana, who said that Spacey groped him in public in 2003, and the actor Roberto Cavazos.
That was followed by an as yet unnamed man who claimed Spacey raped him at 15, Unruh's claim, and 8 crew members on House of Cards who said they were harassed by Spacey as well as a London bartender who said Spacey flashed him and then tried to shut him up with an expensive watch.
Spacey was subsequently dumped by his agency, CAA, his publicist Polaris, and also by Netflix.
In July 2018, it emerged that London's Metropolitan Police were investigating three new claims of sexual assault by Spacey. Fellow actor Guy Pearce also said Spacey had once been “handsy” with him.
