In this May 24, 2017 file photo, Kevin Spacey participates in the speaker series in New York. Spacey is set to appear in court Jan. 7, 2019, on accusations that he groped an 18-year-old man in 2016. AP
NANTUCKET, Massachusetts — Kevin Spacey is due in court Monday to answer accusations that he groped a young man in a bar on the resort island of Nantucket in 2016.
The two-time Oscar winner has said he will plead not guilty to a charge of felony indecent assault and battery.
The court appearance by Spacey comes more than a year after former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh accused the former “House of Cards” star of sexually assaulting her son, then 18, in the crowded bar at the Club Car, where the teen worked as a busboy.
Spacey’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, has sought to poke holes in the case, noting that the teenager didn’t immediately report the allegations.
If convicted, Spacey faces up to five years in prison.
Media trucks lined the street before dawn, and locals on the island, which teems with tourists in the summer but quiets down in the winter, drove by slowly to take photos of reporters standing in line in the cold.
When the doors opened, more than two dozen journalists packed the courtroom hours before Spacey was scheduled to appear in late morning.
It’s the first criminal case brought against the 59-year-old actor since other allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him in 2017.
A judge denied Spacey’s bid to avoid appearing in person Monday at Nantucket District Court. Spacey had argued his presence would “amplify the negative publicity already generated” by the case.
Unruh told reporters in November 2017 that Spacey got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals during the incident. She said her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to the bathroom.
After the charge was announced last month, Spacey released a video in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix’s “House of Cards,” in which he said, “I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn’t do.” It was unclear whether he was referring to the charge.
Spacey has also faced other allegations.
His first accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, said Spacey climbed on top of him on a bed when Rapp was 14 and Spacey 26. Spacey said he did not remember such an encounter but apologized if the allegations were true. /ee