Kevin Spacey Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Assault in Nantucket
The actor is accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a bar in 2016.
Actor Kevin Spacey arrives at district court on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Nantucket, Mass., to be arraigned on a charge of indecent assault and battery. The Oscar-winning actor is accused of groping the teenage son of a former Boston TV anchor in 2016 in the crowded bar at the Club Car in Nantucket. Photo via AP/Steven Senne
Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty to a sexual assault charge in Nantucket on Monday, as throngs of media descended on the Massachusetts island for the actor’s high-profile arraignment.
Spacey, whose legal name is Kevin Fowler, is accused of groping an 18-year-old at a bar in 2016. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, and a date of March 4 has been set for the next court date for the case, a pre-trial hearing, which he will not be required to attend in person. He has been ordered to stay away from the alleged victim and his family.
Kevin Spacey leaves courtroom; ordered to stay away from alleged victim.
@boston25 pic.twitter.com/msMGeVbj9o— Chris Flanagan (@ChrisFlanaganTV) January 7, 2019
The alleged victim is the then-teenaged son of former Boston TV news anchor Heather Unruh, who brought the case to light in a tearful news conference in November of 2017. At the time, Unruh described predatory behavior inside the Club Car Restaurant on July 8, 2016, when Spacey allegedly fed her son drinks before sticking his hands down his pants and grabbing his genitals.
“My son was a star-struck, straight, 18-year-old young man who had no idea that the famous actor was an alleged sexual predator, or that he was about to become his next victim,” Unruh said in a news conference. “Kevin Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink. And when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him.” She says her son fled the bar when a bystander noticed something was wrong and “told him to run as fast as he could.”
In a document filed today, Spacey’s lawyers described the allegations as “patently false” and described the 2016 encounter as “mutual and consensual flirtation,” according to a report in the Boston Globe.
Spacey’s lawyers told media gathered at the courthouse that they would not be commenting after the hearing, and Spacey did not respond to reporters’ questions outside the courthouse.
WATCH: Kevin Spacey leaves Nantucket court after pleading not guilty to felony indecent assault and battery https://t.co/3as9ehkk2k #7News pic.twitter.com/rliDr1B5pV
— 7News Boston WHDH (@7News) January 7, 2019
We did however hear from Spacey himself as news went public that the allegations would be heard in court, when he appeared in a bizarre video in which he spoke as his Frank Underwood character from the TV show House of Cards.
