Kevin Spacey is seeking to avoid
appearing in court early next month for his arraignment on a felony
charge of sexual assault.
According to the
Boston
Globe, Spacey's attorneys have filed a motion asking the
judge to excuse their client's attendance. The hearing is scheduled
for Monday, January 7.
Spacey is being charged criminally in
connection with a 2016 incident involving a young man who was 18 at
the time. The incident allegedly took place at a Nantucket,
Massachusetts restaurant.
The charges involve the son of former
television anchor Heather Unruh, who during a press conference last
year accused Spacey of sexually assaulting her son.
Unruh said that Spacey got her son
drunk then “stuck his hand inside [his] pants and grabbed his
genitals.”
Prosecutors asked the judge to deny
Spacey's request.
“At no time was there any agreement
between the defendant and [prosecutors] with respect to the issue of
the defendant’s appearance for arraignment,” Cape and Islands
Assistant District Attorney Michael K. Giardino wrote. “Furthermore,
during a telephone call on December 27, 2018 with [Spacey’s]
attorney [Juliane] Balliro, she was specifically informed that
[prosecutors] would not agree to the waiver.”
Spacey faces up to five years in prison
and the requirement to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts,
according to the Globe.
According to Mass
Live, which obtained the state police report, evidence in the
case includes a Snapchat video – sent by the victim to his
girlfriend – of Spacey allegedly groping the front the victim's
pants. Several outlets reported that the clip was less than a second
long. Spacey's lawyers have argued that the video does not show that
a crime took place. They also point out that the victim, who worked
as a busboy at the restaurant, did not report the incident to police
for over a year and that he misrepresented himself, telling Spacey
that he was 23 years old.
Soon after the charges were announced
on Monday, Spacey released a bizarre 3-minute video of himself in his
House of Cards character, Frank Underwood, a ruthless
politician who stops at nothing to reach the White House.
“I can promise you this: If I didn't
pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I'm certainly not
going to pay the price for the things I didn't do,” Spacey
says in the video.
The charges are the latest in a string
of accusations unleashed against Spacey after Star Trek: Discovery
actor Anthony Rapp last year accused Spacey of sexual misconduct when
the two actors were working on Broadway and Rapp was 14. In
response, Spacey, for the first time publicly, announced that he is
gay.
The claims resulted in Spacey's firing
from House of Cards.