On Monday, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe announced that actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with indecent assault and battery for a crime he allegedly committed in 2016, reports the Associated Press.
According to former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh, Spacey violated her 18-year-old son in July 2016 by reaching into his pants and fondling his genitals.
During a press conference in November 2017, Unruh detailed the allegations:
It happened late night inside the Club Car restaurant and bar on Nantucket island. The victim, my son, was a star-struck, straight, 18-year-old young man who had no idea that the famous actor was an alleged sexual predator, or that he was about to become his next victim. My son was not of legal age to drink alcohol. He told Kevin Spacey that he was of legal age. But whether he was over 21 or not, Kevin Spacey had no right to sexually assault him. There was no consent. Kevin Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink, and when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him.
...Spacey stuck his hand inside my son's pants and grabbed his genitals. This was completely unexpected, and my son's efforts to shift his body to remove Spacey's hand were only momentarily successful. The violation continued. My son panicked, he froze. He was intoxicated, and Kevin Spacey was insisting that he come with him to a private, after-hours party to drink even more.
Fortunately, Kevin Spacey left briefly to use the bathroom, and when he was out of sight, a concerned woman quickly came to my very shaken son's side and asked if he was okay. ... She told him to run, and he did.
According to Unruh, her son didn’t speak with police after the alleged incident occurred because he was afraid. It wasn’t until November 2017, following allegations made by actor Anthony Rapp, that Unruh went to the police.
Spacey, who disappeared from the public eye approximately one year ago after a glut of allegations were made against him regarding sexual harassment and assault, released a strange video on Monday titled, "Let Me Be Frank," in which he appears to play a hybrid of himself and his character Frank Underwood from Netflix’s "House of Cards."
In the video, Spacey speaks directly to the camera, and says:
I know what you want. Oh sure, they may have tried to separate us, but what we have is too strong, is too powerful. I mean, after all, we shared everything, you and I. I told you my deepest, darkest secrets. I showed you exactly what people are capable of. I shocked you with my honesty. But mostly, I challenged you and made you think. And you trusted me even though you knew you shouldn't.
So we're not done no matter what anyone says – and besides, I know what you want. You want me back. Of course, some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They're just dying to have me declare that everything said is true, and that I got what I deserved. Wouldn't that be easy if it was all so simple? Only, you and I both know it's never that simple – not in politics and not in life.
But you wouldn't believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn't rush to judgment without facts, would you? Did you? No, not you. You're smarter than that. Anyway, all this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending. And to think, it could have been such a memorable send-off. I mean, if you and I have learned nothing else these past years, it's that in life and art, nothing should be off the table. We weren't afraid, not of what we said and not of what we did, and we're still not afraid.
Because 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. Oh, of course they're going to say I'm being disrespectful, not playing by the rules. Like I ever played by anyone's rules before. I never did, and you loved it. Anyhow, despite all the poppycock, the animosity, the headlines, the impeachment without a trial, despite everything, despite even my own death, I feel surprisingly good, and my confidence grows each day that soon enough you will know the full tru-
Spacey then stops for a moment, and looks back into the camera: "Oh, wait a minute. Now that I think of it, you never actually saw me die, did you?" He then puts a ring on his right hand similar to the one his character wears in "House of Cards." He ends the video by saying: "Conclusions can be so deceiving. Miss me?"
It appears that Spacey is using his character as a way to defend himself in real life. Perhaps the most peculiar line from the video is: "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." What Spacey means by this line is unclear.
The video has racked up 5.1 million views since it was uploaded on Monday.
After actor Anthony Rapp alleged in October 2017 that Spacey had advanced upon him sexually when he was just 14 years old, Spacey attempted to deflect from the news by publicly coming out as gay. This video could be a similar attempt to smoke the air, especially given the timing.
Unruh’s son’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, released a statement on Monday in which he said that "the complainant has shown a tremendous amount of courage in coming forward," adding that he hopes to see "a just and fair verdict rendered."
Spacey will be arraigned in a Nantucket court on January 7, 2019.