William Little, who sued Kevin Spacey because of facts happened in a Nantucket bar in 2016, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on Monday, refusing to testify about the whereabouts of the phone he was using on the night in question. Little took the Fifth through his lawyer in Nantucket District Court. Judge Thomas Barrett said the accuser’s decision meant the testimony he gave earlier in Monday’s hearing would be stricken. Spacey’s attorney, Alan Jackson, called for the case to be dismissed, saying that if the alleged victim won’t testify in future proceedings, allowing the case to proceed will simply waste the time and money of everyone involved. Jackson said:

This entire case is completely compromised. This case needs to be dismissed and it needs to be dismissed today.

Prosecutor Brian Glenny asked the judge for at least a week so officials in his office can decide whether to proceed with the case. Glenny said prosecutors “certainly have to consider” whether they want to proceed with the case but said they did not expect to decide Monday. Barrett said that while the case “may well be dismissed”, he cautioned that “it’s not going to be dismissed today”. Earlier Monday, the alleged victim told Kevin Spacey’s lawyer that he didn’t delete any text messages on his phone from the night of the encounter. The accuser conceded on the stand that some data was missing

due to a variety of circumstances. Those circumstances were not related to any deletions.

Little later invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer questions about the current whereabouts of the phone. Asked by Kevin Spacey attorney Alan Jackson if former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh, the mother of the accuser, had instructed the accuser to get rid of some texts on the phone, the alleged victim said he couldn’t remember but he didn’t believe so. Unruh also took the stand Monday and said the groping allegations brought by her son are not untrue, to which Jackson replied, “We’ll see”. Unruh admitted she deleted some material from her son’s phone before turning it over to investigators, but she insisted the deleted material wasn’t relevant to the case. She said she initially looked through her son’s phone after he told her:

He had shot a video of Kevin Spacey sticking his hand inside his pants, so I went looking for that video.

The phone, which is currently missing, has emerged as a key issue in the legal saga. Earlier during Monday’s hearing, attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents Spacey’s accuser, told Judge Thomas S. Barrett that his client, his client’s father and his mother, Unruh, now do not know what happened to the phone. “We could not locate the phone”, Garabedian told Barrett as the judge mulls the contention from Spacey’s lawyers that data on the cellphone is essential to defending him against the criminal charge. Garabedian suggested it was not their responsibility to hold onto evidence in the criminal case, but was instead the responsibility of Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe’s office to safeguard any evidence while a criminal case is pending.

But First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny said State Police and his office obtained the phone on Nov. 29, 2017, that it underwent forensic examination on Dec. 14, and that a State Police trooper returned it to either the accuser or the accuser’s father on Dec. 18, 2017. Jackson, Spacey’s lead attorney, told Barrett that the accuser and the prosecution are both avoiding responsibility for the disappearance of the potential evidence — but the cost is borne by Spacey and his effort to vindicate his claims of innocence. Jackson said:

They are pointing fingers at each other… but guess who loses because of this – that would be us.

Speaking from the bench, Barrett mused aloud that he expected the defense to ask for sanctions to be imposed on the prosecution because the phone is now lost. “I am not saying there are consequences, but there could be. We will see what happens”, he said. Garabedian also offered an explanation for the decision to terminate the civil lawsuit his office filed against Spacey on behalf of the accuser. The case was filed and dismissed with prejudice in seven days. His client, Garabedian said, has been on a “roller coaster” of emotions and jettisoning the civil lawsuit was his way of dealing with it. Garabedian also said he has some backup data from the accuser’s laptop from 2016 that may assuage the defense concerns.

In anticipation of Monday’s hearing, a crowd of more than a dozen onlookers gathered across the street from the courthouse, many clutching cellphones and waiting to see if Spacey would appear as he did during the most recent hearing in the case. However, Kevin Spacey did not show up in court. Jackson, his California-based attorney, arrived at the courthouse without his client. Meanwhile, during last hours different pics of Spacey appeared on social media, showing him with people in Florida and London, causing fans’ happiness because of his peaceful appearance. A status conference is set for July 31th.

Source: Boston Globe

RELATED LINK: William Little dropped his lawsuit against Kevin Spacey. Civil case is dismissed with prejudice

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