How Kevin Spacey destroyed four more assault accusations
Spacey's accusers revealed in court to be serial exaggerators with an unhealthy interest in making money from the accusations
If you’ve kept up with our reporting, you know that Kevin Spacey’s 2022 trial in New York was made of straw.
We recently wrote about how actor Anthony Rapp’s case fell apart under the slightest scrutiny. Read that article here, and listen to our podcast, The Kevin Spacey Trial: Unfiltered for the full story.
But actor Anthony Rapp wasn’t the only accuser. Other men in the US and UK have come forward accusing Spacey of assault or unwanted sexual attention. Surely they couldn’t all be making it up?
But allegations against Kevin Spacey have all followed a familiar trajectory. Claims made in a blaze of publicity and a public outcry followed by legal action. Then when the accusers go to court and are asked to produce evidence, the allegations are found wanting. Sometimes they are even found to be outright deceptive. Then the case collapses - just fades away. But Spacey is still cancelled - no matter what jury after jury decides.
And so it was in London, where accusers have more advantages in court than in the US. But still a jury found the actor innocent of all the charges. After 12 hours of deliberation, the jury dismissed all nine charges against the actor, which included charges of sexual assault and indecent assault. I (Phelim McAleer) sat through every day of the court case. The only surprise was that it took 12 hours for the case to collapse.
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There were four complainants in this trial claiming the various degrees of assault between 2005 and 2013. Here’s why each and every one of their complaints deservedly fell apart.
Juries are not liberal elites, and therefore skeptical of the #METOO Mob Madness
As the UK trial progressed, it became clear some of the charges would not have made it to court before the #MeToo movement threw due process aside. It was clear that some of the cases were just padding - perhaps the prosecutor was hoping the jury would think there is no smoke without fire and convict on at least one charge. The cases were very weak and just got weaker as the trial went on. These were MeToo charges that would never have made it to court in normal times.
At times, the evidence was farcical and complainants became increasingly desperate to explain how their allegations could match up with contradictory facts presented by Spacey.
One complainant denied ever contacting Spacey after their encounter, but phone records from 2003 proved otherwise. As the complainant floundered in the witness box, he was left suggesting a rather bizarre scenario in which Spacey had somehow installed malware on his phone to make it only look like he had sent Spacey texts. Not surprisingly, the jury rejected the idea of 2003 Spacey as an evil, tech-savvy predator, and accepted Spacey’s claim that their relationship was romantic, friendly and consensual.
Elton John
In Britain, Sir Elton John has “National Treasure” status. That normally means going with the flow, and definitely not standing up and shouting “Stop!” against the latest craziness.
But that is what the pop star did. Sir Elton’s standing was at an all time high after the emotion and nostalgia of his final concert at Glastonbury in June 2023, and as a surprise encore he turned up to defend the canceled Kevin Spacey a few weeks later.
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As one legal source said: “In the UK having Elton John testify in your defense is like the Queen Mother declaring you’re innocent”.
Even the prosecutor admitted to the jury that she was “starstruck” by his presence.
But Elton John’s evidence was more than just a character reference. It was crucial in demolishing the most serious allegations of the first complainant, who claimed Spacey assaulted him on the way to one of John’s famous “White Tie and Tiara” balls. The complainant told a dramatic story of an assault so violent that it almost caused a car crash, and a threat to “f##king knock [his] block off” if the assault persisted. It was, the complainant dramatically told the jury, a turning point in his life when he decided he could no longer cope with the ongoing assaults by Spacey and he walked away from working for the actor.
However, Sir Elton John and his husband/business manager, David Furnish, testified that Spacey had not attended the ball that year, nor any year near the time of the alleged assault. They both said they would have remembered Spacey's attendance, and had searched guest lists and photo archives to confirm their memories. The idea of Sir Elton John going through 20 year old photos and guest lists was obviously enough for the jury to throw those charges out.
The complainant also said he had provided security and had been a driver for Elton John. The pop star and his husband both vigorously denied this, allowing Spacey's defense team to characterize the complainant as an exaggerator and fantasist.
Kevin Spacey: The Hoarder
Most of the UK charges were from the early 2000s. For an average person, it would be almost impossible to find physical evidence that would allow them to fight allegations from that long ago. This was a time before camera phones, widespread texting, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Any paperwork from the era would be long gone - wouldn’t it?
But Spacey’s Baltimore warehouse saved him yet again. As we outlined in our last Spacey Substack the actor is a hoarder and keeps documents and papers from every day of his life. And they are all stored in a rather ugly warehouse in Baltimore. These boxes proved to be Spacey’s secret weapon.
For example, very deep in those boxes was a UK phone from 2003. That phone and the phone bills allowed Spacey to prove he had been in regular contact with the complainant despite the complainant's claims to the contrary. It was this treasure trove of evidence that led to the desperate and ludicrous “malware defence”.
Money, money, money (and fame)
#MeToo says we must not only “believe all victims,” but that we also must make heroes out of them. Several of the complainants had approached journalists about their allegations. Their claims were accepted without challenge. They all said they were inspired to come forward after the allegations against the actor came out in the US. The UK complainants were treated as brave heroes.
In addition, three out of the four complainants had serious financial issues and had inquired about taking civil lawsuits against Spacey, seeking massive monetary damages. To be clear, there is nothing wrong or illegal about suing someone who you claim has sexually assaulted you. But the claims allowed Spacey’s defense team to propose that the criminal allegations were part of a cash grab rather than a pursuit of justice.
One of the complainants did not help his case by writing directly to Spacey, offering to withdraw from the court case in “exchange for a settlement”. In court he said he could not remember sending the email, but its existence really begs the question as to how this case was allowed to be put to the jury.
Another complainant was told by a lawyer that he could possibly make $10 million from the lawsuit, and another complainant who was suing for almost half a million pounds admitted to having a gambling problem. They all had serious credibility problems.
An Unusual Suspect
When he was first accused of misconduct by Anthony Rapp in 2017, Spacey and his team immediately put out an apology.
But when Spacey took the stand now, in 2023, there were no quasi-apologies. He was scathing toward his accusers. He called one allegation “absolutely bollocks.” Another was a “stab in the back”. And the jury believed him.
Despite the recent allegations in a channel 4 documentary Spacey is an innocent man exonerated in numerous courts across several jurisdictions. In a post #MeToo world where we are supposed to believe all accusers, it is unlikely that these verdicts are enough for Hollywood to welcome him back. They should. And so should we all. It's time for us to take our moral lead from juries who listen to the evidence and exonerate, not from those who accuse without evidence.
Listen to our podcast, the Kevin Spacey Trial: Unfiltered, to hear the full story of how Kevin Spacey’s life collapsed under false accusations.