The young man charged with indicting Kevin Spacey for sexual assault this week dropped a civil suit he had filed against the actor before a new potentially difficult criminal hearing for the prosecution.
This “voluntary abandonment” was registered with the court of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts – where the alleged assault occurred in July 2016 – with no reason given.
It comes before a new hearing scheduled Monday criminal for the star actor of the series “House of Cards”, potentially embarrassing for the prosecution.
Part of his file is based on images filmed with his cell by the alleged victim, William Little, then 18 years old and waiter in a restaurant on this island very popular with the jet set in the summer: they would show Kevin Spacey putting him hand to sex.
But this phone, which the defense asks to examine, seems impossible to find.
William Little says he did not see him again after giving him to the police for examination in December 2017.
The police claimed that they had given it to the victim’s father, but he said he had “no memory of it”. If the phone is not delivered by Monday’s hearing, the judge warned that he would call Mr. Little to testify about his disappearance.
Kevin Spacey, 59, was formally charged in January with indecent assault and assault on a person over 14 years old.
He pleads not guilty and faces up to five years in prison.
The case contributed to annihilate the career of the two-time Oscar winner, targeted by a series of harassment and sexual assault charges since November 2017, in the United States and London.
He was banned from the last season of “House of Cards” and Ridley Scott’s latest film, “All the Money in the World”, in which he was replaced at the last minute by Christopher Plummer.