A young man who accused Kevin Spacey of groping him at a resort bar in Nantucket in 2016 dropped his sexual assault lawsuit against the actor on Friday.
Mitchell Garabedian, the accuser’s lawyer, revealed that the suit — filed June 26 in Nantucket Superior Court — has been voluntarily dismissed by his client, the Associated Press reported. Reason for the dismissal was not provided by Garabedian or in the court filing, and the lawyer told the outlet he would have no further comment on the matter.
The AP reported that the suit was dismissed “with prejudice” and that it cannot be refiled.
Spacey still faces a criminal charge for indecent assault and battery, to which he pleaded not guilty in January.
The sexual assault accusation was first brought forward in November 2017 by former Boston TV news anchor Heather Unruh when she publicly accused the actor of assaulting her then 18-year-old son at a bar in July 2016. The accusation came amid a flurry of other sexual misconduct allegations and claims that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances towards young male actors.
In police reports obtained by PEOPLE, Unruh’s son, now 20, told authorities that he was “texting and snapchatting” when Spacey reached down his pants and repeatedly touched his genitals over the course of three minutes while they were together at the Nantucket bar, where the accuser worked as a busboy.
He also told investigators that he approached Spacey that night, wanting a photo, and proceeded to drink heavily with the actor — after lying about his age by saying he was a 23-year-old college student — before the alleged assault took place, according to the police reports.
The accuser said Spacey’s alleged touching went on for about three minutes and that he tried to move away, to no avail, according to the reports. He said that he fled when Spacey went to the bathroom.
News about the charge against Spacey broke the same day that the actor released a video — portraying his deceased House of Cards character, Frank Underwood — in which he alluded to the multiple sexual assault allegations against him, and maintained his innocence.
“Of course, some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all,” Spacey said in the video shared to his social channels. “They’re just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. Wouldn’t that be easy if it was all so simple? Only you and I both know it’s never that simple, not in politics and not in life.”
He said, “I can promise you this: If I didn’t pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn’t do.”
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