Kevin Spacey Accuser Can't Find Key Evidence

Lawyer says cellphone demanded by defense is missing
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 20, 2019 2:08 AM CDT
Key Evidence in Kevin Spacey Case Is Missing
In this June 3, 2019 photo, actor Kevin Spacey attends a pretrial hearing at district court in Nantucket, Mass.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A man who says Kevin Spacey groped him at a bar on a Massachusetts resort island cannot find the cellphone he has been ordered to turn over to the defense, the accuser's attorney said Wednesday. Spacey's lawyers have demanded the phone so they can try to recover text messages they say would support Spacey's claims of innocence. The judge said earlier this month that the phone must be given to authorities by Friday. But Attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the judge in court documents that the phone used by the accuser at the time of the alleged groping at a Nantucket bar is missing. The young man and his parents "have searched all the places where such a phone may have been stored. They have not found the phone," Garabedian said.

The judge is now giving them until July 8 to produce the phone. If it can't be found, the man, his mother, and Garabedian must appear in court that day to explain what they know about its whereabouts, the AP reports. The phone has been a central issue in the case against Spacey, who pleaded not guilty in January to a charge of indecent assault and battery. The case first came to light in 2017, when former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh said Spacey got her then-18-year-old son drunk and then sexually assaulted him. Garabedian said Spacey's accuser and his parents have no memory of seeing the phone since it was given to authorities back in 2017. Officials have indicated that the phone was returned to the man's father, but his father doesn't remember getting the phone back from police, the lawyer said. (Earlier this month, Spacey made a surprise court appearance.)

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