Complainant Drops Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.

A young man who had accused Kevin Spacey of sexual harassment in a Massachusetts bar has dropped his lawsuit against the actor. A motion for “voluntary dismissal” of the civil complaint against the House of Cards star was filed in the Superior Court of Nantucket, Massachusetts, with no reason given.

The possible motives for the dismissal include a private settlement or the accuser's desire not to risk damaging his odds in a separate criminal case with the civil suit, that was filed six days back.

The survivor’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian did not comment on the development.

The survivor said that he had taken a smartphone video of the incident, which he says took place when he was an 18-year-old busboy in a Nantucket bar/restaurant. The clip allegedly shows Kevin Spacey shoving his hands into the teenager’s pants and fondling him.

However, the plaintiff’s lawyers have said that they could not find the smartphone that Spacey’s defense team had demanded to see. The man has said he has not seen the phone since he had handed it over to the police investigators in December 2017. But the cops have said that they returned it to the man’s father, who says he has “no memory” of it.

If the phone is not located by Monday, the district judge has said he will ask the survivor to testify about it.

Kevin Spacey was charged in January with indecent assault and battery. The actor has pleaded innocence. The charges carry a penalty of up to five years in prison. The allegation against the Oscar winner had devastating effects on his acting career.

Kevin Spacey was dropped from the cast of the popular House of Cards series and from a lead role in director Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World.