Los Angeles prosecutors considering sex assault charge against Kevin Spacey
(Netflix)
Prosecutors in Los Angeles are considering a potential case against actor Kevin Spacey.
Officials in the city confirmed they may level charges against the House of Cards star who had a dramatic fall from grace last year after a string of men levelled accusations against him.
The probe in Los Angeles relates to an incident that took place in West Hollywood in October 1992, when Spacey is alleged to have sexually assaulted a man.
The LA District Attorney’s Office sex crimes task force is now considering bringing a sexual assault charge against Spacey, after being handed details by police.
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A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office confirmed: “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departments Special Victims Bureau began an investigation into allegations of a sexual assault involving Mr. Kevin Spacey on December 11, 2017.
“The events were reported to have taken place in October of 1992 in West Hollywood involving a male adult.”
The case was transferred to prosecutors on April 5.
London’s Metropolitan Police is also continuing to investigate allegations made relating to the actor, who was previously artistic director of the Old Vic theatre.
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The actor was abruptly dropped from Netflix series House of Cards last year after Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance when he was a minor.
Spacey attempted to come out as gay in response to the allegations of sexual assault – a move that was strongly criticised by LGBT activists.
In an interview with BuzzFeed in October, Rapp claimed that when he was 14, Spacey invited him to a party at his New York apartment and, while drunk, tried to seduce him by climbing on top of him.
Although Spacey was named publicly for the first time, Rapp has made the allegations on a number of occasions previously.
Rapp spoke about the incident in an interview with gay magazine The Advocate back in 2001, but the outlet chose not to name Spacey because it had a policy banning the ‘outing’ of gay celebrities who were in the closet.
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Bruce Steele, the former editor of Out magazine and The Advocate, recently recalled: “I had long known Spacey was gay, or at least bisexual, in part because my friend Anthony Rapp had told me his story of a sexual pass Spacey made at him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was about 26.
“Rapp told me that in the mid 1990s, and we even printed his account of the encounter in The Advocate in 2001, with Spacey’s name redacted.
“In keeping with The Advocate’s ‘no outing’ policy, when Rapp related the entire incident to writer Dennis Hensley in 2001, we removed Spacey’s name and identifying details.
“Rapp understood the decision, and he didn’t share the story again via the news media until now.”
Anthony Rapp (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
He added: “What Rapp’s revelation and Spacey’s response prove is that even one person, with the story of one night, can make a difference. I will long ponder what we didn’t do in 2001, I hope with concrete results about what we can do in 2017.”
Since Rapp’s allegations, a string of other men have made allegations against Spacey.
A teenager claimed that Spacey exposed his penis to him, before giving him his £5,000 watch as a bribe to stay quiet.
Daniel Beal, who was a 19-year-old barman in 2010, said the two-time Oscar winner approached him on his smoke break and showed him his penis.
Filmmaker Tony Montana has also accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him in 2003, saying: “He put his hand on my crotch forcefully and grabbed my whole package.”
Montana, whose film Overnight was an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival, said Spacey – who he recalled seemed to be drunk – told him: “This designates ownership.”
The filmmaker alleges he had to physically push Spacey off him and had PTSD for six months after the incident.
