Kevin Spacey settles sexual assault suit with late accuser's estate

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Kevin Spacey has settled a lawsuit with the estate of a man who had accused him of sexual assault, following the accuser's death in September.

The accuser, a massage therapist, had alleged that Spacey, 60, forced him to grab his genitals and tried to kiss him during a session in Malibu in October 2016. Spacey denied the allegation.

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A trial was set to take place in federal court in June 2020, but the accuser died, reportedly of cancer, on September 6, 2019.

The accuser's estate filed a notice dismissing the lawsuit on Monday. Each side agreed to pay their own costs. Any other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had investigated the man's allegations and forwarded the case to the district attorney's office. After the accuser died, prosecutors announced they would not bring charges in the matter.

The plaintiff's attorneys had intended to call two other massage therapists who would also claim that they were assaulted by Spacey. All three massage therapists did not want to be publicly identified.

Spacey had faced a separate criminal charge in Nantucket, stemming from an alleged groping of a busboy. That case was dropped in July, however, after the accuser in that case invoked his Fifth Amendment privileges during an evidentiary hearing. Spacey's attorneys had accused the man and his mother of tampering with text messages used as evidence in the case. That accuser also dropped a civil suit.

Last week, Spacey released a video (watch it above) in which he portrayed Frank Underwood, his character from House of Cards.

"You didn't really think I was going to miss the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas, did you?" he asked.