Kevin Spacey won’t face criminal charges in groping case after accuser’s death

Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey won’t face criminal charges in a sexual assault case involving a massage therapist who died unexpectedly last month.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday said it would be declining the case filed against the Oscar winner. Prosecutors cited the death of the accuser during the course of their investigation. The man was an anonymous masseur who claimed the actor forced him to touch his genitals during a treatment at Spacey’s Malibu home in October 2016.

“The sexual assault allegations cannot be proved without participation of the victim. Thus, the case was declined,” said charging documents provided to The Times by a D.A. spokesman.

Spacey’s criminal attorney was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

Entertainment & Arts

Massage therapist suing Kevin Spacey for sexual assault dies ahead of trial

The decision by actor Kevin Spacey’s legal team to immediately file a death notice with the court could jeopardize the case, the late accuser’s attorney says.

Sept. 18, 2019

However, the former “House of Cards” star could still be held liable in a civil case initially brought by the John Doe last year — though it is still unclear how and if that case will proceed in the wake of the accuser’s death. If it does, any damages that might have been awarded in the case would flow through to heirs of the deceased.

The lawsuits are some of the handful of legal cases the actor has faced after he fell from grace during the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Over the summer, Massachusetts prosecutors dropped a separate groping case more than a week after the accuser refused to testify in the case. Last year, Los Angeles prosecutors also declined to file charges against Spacey following a 1992 allegation because the alleged incident was beyond the statute of limitations.