NANTUCKET, Mass. — Kevin Spacey’s legal team has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to charges the actor groped an 18-year-old busboy in a Massachusetts bar in 2016.
Spacey was arraigned on a charge of felony indecent assault and battery during a hearing Monday at Nantucket District Court. The judge ordered the disgraced actor must stay away from the young man.
Another hearing is set for March 4. Spacey does not have to appear.
Spacey’s lawyer has questioned the evidence against him. The judge granted a request by Spacey’s lawyer to preserve the young man’s cellphone data for the six months following the alleged assault.
It’s the first criminal case brought against the 59-year-old after a string of sexual misconduct allegations crippled his career in 2017.
After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix’s “House of Cards,” in which he said, “I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn’t do.” It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge.
Spacey has also faced other allegations.
His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Rapp was 14 and Spacey 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologized if the allegations were true.
