Kevin Spacey attempted to avoid a January 7 arraignment relating to a charge of sexual assault, however on Monday (31) a Massachusetts judge said the disgraced actor must attend.
Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett threw out Spacey’s request not to show up after his legal team argued the celebrity’s presence would “amplify” ongoing negative publicity. Spacey also indicated he would enter a not guilty plea.
The actor and former star of Netflix show House Of Cards is charged with one count of indecent assault and battery in 2016 in Nantucket against a then-teenage boy, the son of a Boston TV news anchor.
Last week, prosecutors claimed they had video evidence of the alleged assault, prompting a rebuke from Spacey’s attorneys that the video depicted nothing illegal.
After news of the felony charge broke last week, Spacey appeared the same day in a bizarre video in which he addressed the camera in character as Frank Underwood, the Machiavellian former US president on House Of Cards.
Netflix fired Spacey in late 2017 in light of multiple allegations, and explained his absence at the start of Season 6, which debuted in November, by saying Underwood had died.
However in the post, titled ‘Let Me Be Frank’, Spacey was seen in a holiday season kitchen setting as he appeared to carve a turkey and make oblique references to his own life.
“[M]y confidence grows each day that soon enough you will know the full truth,” said Spacey in the video, adding later: “Of course some believed everything. They’re just waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They’re just dying to hear me say that everything was true and I got what I deserved.
“You wouldn’t believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn’t rush to judgment without facts, would you? Did you? All this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending and to think it could have been such a memorable send-off.
“I can promise you this,” he went on, “If I didn’t pay the price for the things we both know I did, I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn’t do.”
It is understood Netflix was not involved in the video.
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