On Wednesday, Massachusetts criminal prosecutors dropped their case against actor Kevin Spacey.
Spacey had faced a criminal charge of indecent assault and battery in connection with a reported July 2016 incident at the Club Car restaurant/bar in Nantucket. His accuser, an 18 yr. old busboy at the restaurant, had accused Spacey of groping him.
The accuser’s mother, a former TV anchor, filed the complaint more than a year after the alleged incident supposedly occurred. Spacey pled “not guilty” and faced up to five years in prison if convicted.
The alleged victim has since exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a pre-trial when questions regarding his missing cell phone and text messages deleted by his mother prior to the phone being handed over to the police and prosecutors were brought up.
Now the complaint, which made national headlines and surely may have played a part in putting Mr. Spacey’s life and career on simmer, gets dropped and disappears like it never happened.
We’re left to wonder, was there ever any truth to the accusations?
It’s not even a question as to whether or not Kevin Spacey was guilty, but more a question of is it OK to make accusations that will potentially ruin someone’s life and then later to decide, “well, never mind, let’s drop the charges and forget about it?”
Granted there have been other accusations of sexual assault and harassment against Mr. Spacey, his career went into a downward spiral in 2017 following accusations in the US including one dating as far back as 1986. Accusations cost him his acting career in “House of Cards”, and he is currently being questioned regarding alleged sexual assault offenses in the UK occurring between 1996 and 2013.
Some may say “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, meaning if there’s so many accusations, there is probably some truth to them. But in this country aren’t we supposed to be innocent until proven guilty?
Accusations. A man loses his career, his reputation ruined, his life put on hold. We seem to now live in a culture of “guilty until proven innocent”. Accusations. How many registrants end up in prison due to mere accusations?
The question becomes, where does the truth lie?
The #MeToo movement definitely amped up current and past allegations of sexual misconduct. Those famously accused make world headlines. They have the resources, the wealth and the connections to fight the accusations leveled against them, guilty or not. The rest of us mere mortals, those that end up as a brief paragraph in the local morning paper, we often don’t have the resources to fight long drawn out court battles. Too often many of us are quickly found guilty and quietly sent off to serve time.
Accusers and the accused. There’s two sides to every story and sometimes the truth lies somewhere in between, but in the meantime, real people’s lives, reputations, careers and families get torn apart.
In the case of Kevin Spacey, we may never know whether he is guilty or innocent of the assault charges. We do know that the accusations alone were enough to irreparably change this man’s life forever.
And now, after all the media hoopla, those accusations are nothing more than dust
To hell with the metoo movement. They can take their adversarial, critical thinking averse attitudes and shove em up their asses. If they want war that’s what they get.
You can now see in the public arena senior military officials getting hit with accusations of the same thing even after being investigated with no proof, but Congress can second guess the process and restart it on their own or the services can still go after a person after they have retired with an investigation on an accusation from decades ago to revisit in the current era. Going after over 80 year old generals for accusations 25 years old is bull.
It’s not just bull. It’s incredibly dangerous. Take critical thinking out of the picture completely and you get a sexually totalitarian society. It’s already authoritarian here enough as we already know far too well.
I might get “flamed” for this post, but I am going to try and be as delicate as possible.
The “bar” in which Mr. Spacey was in on Nantucket has been known and is still a very upscale and fancy spot. But, it’s primary clientele going back to the early 70’s are high profile MEN. It’s the “classy spot” where quietly gay men frequent and has been for decades. The location is Class, excellent Michelin Starred Chefs, high profile customers; and always a quiet nod to the clientele. FULL DISCLOSURE: I grew up on that Island and have been going there for half a century.
Moving on.
A celebrity actor such as Mr. Spacey regardless of is peccadillos; is a major pull for any bar. In particular, on a breezy Summer night when the “Dark & Stormy” is flowing and the fog is rolling in, the Brant Point Lighthouse is blowing it’s horn; it is magic there.
So, Mr. Spacey finding himself in a “familiar territory” may have found himself a Fan. Be it may that perhaps this young man was also enamored as well. So, in the realm of possible hook-ups, there was some agreement. Perhaps such a person who caught the eye of Mr. Spacey also allowed certain messages of “availability” or flirting as well. It could be said that as a celebrity, if Kevin could be entertained by such, well then folks isn’t that in the realm of possibility?
Remember, it was the MOTHER that was so “shocked and screamed assault of her Son”. No one ever heard from the Son. In fact, he did a video that he sent to his “girlfriend” about the interaction as a “OMG it’s Kevin” . Alas, that phone and video departed this mortal coil, and in doing so there is nothing left to say.
A Summer night, lots of drinks. A celebrity guy and an attractive young man have a “close encounter”. Yes Mom, your Son might be GAY. Get over it. If he is working at that location he certainty is attractive to all genders. So, get over it. It’s a “Pull” and Mr. Spacey stuck around and had lots of drinks and got a perhaps “shot” at having a date for the night.
I am not saying any party is excusable. But in the realm of possibility, perhaps it was just Kevin being a bit Tipsy, his suitor being a bit too receptive, and at the end of the day it didn’t work out. So the suitor went back and perhaps was a bit confused as he alleged Mr. Spacey got a bit too frisky.
A summer night, fog rolling in, Brant Point light sounding it’s horn and excellent food, drinks and company. The location is very intimate and is one of those spots that anyone who is some one goes to if they wish to remain “discrete” in their interests. Ummmmmmm, I think that perhaps it was simply a misunderstanding.
Its just my Humble opinion.
Cheers all.
Kat,
A great title to this peice, and so true. Before one can access the me too generation cultural thinking and perceptions one must consider where they developed these attitudes. The culture of their parents played a huge role. Metoo folks are products of the culture their parents grew up with. Simply put, metoo-ers are the children of those who came the generation prior.
The me generation:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_generation
The Middle Truth
My biggest issue with SCOTUS ruling on the expost03 decision is credibility. Though popular with many, I believe most knew it was indeed incongruous and obviously avoidable by the choice of words used ” was in prison… ”
Popular but corrosive to the court’s integrity. A sign of weakness to be exploited. In recent times, we’ve witnessed Judges being recalled, hoisted, drummed out on the basis of the same bunch. Epstein cut himself a great deal and for most anyone but him no one would complain.
But some cry loudly, not enough for him. We already know he’s got it coming, but I can into this article about a private investigator from CNN (no comment on veracity, please). It makes me wonder who the he’ll the good guys are anymore.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/investigator-has-spent-a-decade-on-jeffrey-epsteins-trail/ar-AAEAbzc?ocid=AMZN
1) No reporting of who hired him in the first place. Who was initial retainer?
2) Ep. allegedly hired PD to intimidate. Go figure.
3) Are true pedophile really interested in 14 through 20 yrs? No!
You may not believe it, but I saw the #MeToo movement spouting in 2005. The Pendulum was swinging hard that way. Part of the reason for thinking so was “To Catch a Preadator” and Perverted Justice being investigator and executionar with impunity, meaning the punishment administrators without objection. As most of you know back then very few spoke out against them. Any due process argument in any comments resulted in accuastions of being a pedo. It is more possible to speak out now but the pedulum never swung back, not even to nutral.
So I quite working for Mr. Spacey and the production company in my limited capacity because I thought being an RSO might stain the company. There were hints of this consquence from outside. I’ve been in minor revenge mode ever since. In that light, is it fair to suspect a $ motive in this case? I think so.
On the subject of #metoo this is an interesting and informative read.
The Puzzling Purposes of Statutes of Limitations
https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=facpubs