(AP) – Prosecutors have dropped a case accusing Kevin Spacey of groping a young man at a Massachusetts resort island bar in 2016.
The Cape and Islands district attorney said Wednesday that they dropped the indecent assault and battery case brought against the actor last year.
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 hobbled after Spacey’s accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify about text messages the defense claims were deleted.
The accuser had been ordered to testify about a 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 Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement Wednesday that prosecutors met with the accuser on Sunday, days after a hearing during which the man refused to testify about text messages the defense says were deleted.
Prosecutors say they told the accuser that if he continued to refuse to testify, they couldn’t move forward with the case. They say he “elected not to waive his right under the Fifth Amendment.”
Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for the man, said in an email that he and his family “have shown an enormous amount of courage under difficult circumstances.”
Garabedian said he had no further comment.
