this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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[–] Chetzemoka@kbin.social 217 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

WOW the number of people in this thread immediately jumping to the accusers being "false" and deserving jail. Because no actual sexual predator ever got away with it in court...

(Sex crimes are extraordinarily difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt because the actions are taken in private without a lot of physical evidence. Which sexual predators rely on to get away with their crimes, by the way.)

Perhaps we should review the sheer volume of young men from all over the US & UK reporting that Spacey was at best inappropriate with them. One of the youngest being 14 years old:

https://people.com/tv/kevin-spacey-controversy-timeline/

And just in case some of us need a refresher course, the rate of false rape accusations is low:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21164210/

And the rate of sexual assault is high:

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 76 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Indeed. In a thread a couple of days back on a different (though related) subject I was accused of being a rape apologist because I was insistent on the presumption of innocence and the beyond-reasonable-doubt standards that need to be overcome when accusations like this are slung. But it works the same in the other direction too - we can't assume that an accuser is guilty of fraud or libel or filing false reports or whatever just because they failed to prove their case.

It would not be good for justice if these situations ended up being "now that the accusation has been made someone is going to go to jail, either the accused or the accuser." The Thunderdome is not a good model to emulate.

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[–] soft_frog@kbin.social 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah this whole thing isn't simple. Even if he's cleared of charges, these allegations are old and that makes them hard to prove or disprove.

Further, the quantity is concerning. Maybe he's just prolifically sexual but my gut can't really get passed how many accusations there are over such a long span of time. Even if innocent, still creepy is my opinion.

[–] Givesomefucks@kbin.social 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In general, any multimillionaire that gets off of a serious charge doesn't mean they're innocent.

It just another example of having ridiculous amounts of money in our legal system means it's really hard to be hel accountable.

Hell, trump got off of beating and raping his wife, because of an old ass New York law that said a husband can't rape his wife under any circumstance.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 year ago

In general, any multimillionaire that gets off of a serious charge doesn’t mean they’re innocent.

Don't forget the flip-side of that - the prisons are full of poor people who do not deserve to be there. It's almost as if the system was designed to be like this...

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[–] roguetrick@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

the quantity is concerning

And also not admissible in a criminal court. That's part of the problem. If you look at the big picture, it's obvious he did it, but it's not as easy to prove it in criminal court.

[–] soft_frog@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

Even if it were all legally fine, something is wrong if that many people are coming forward.

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[–] shoop@lemmy.ml 85 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

From his wiki:

On October 29, 2017, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey, while appearing intoxicated, made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26.[118][119] Rapp had also shared this story in a 2001 interview with The Advocate, but Spacey's name was redacted from publication to avoid legal disputes and public outing.[120] Spacey stated through Twitter that he did not remember the encounter, but that he owed Rapp "the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior" if he had behaved as asserted.[121][122] On September 9, 2020, Rapp sued Spacey for sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress under the Child Victims Act.[123]

Fifteen others then came forward alleging similar abuse,[124] including Boston anchorwoman Heather Unruh, who alleged that Spacey sexually assaulted her son;[125][126] filmmaker Tony Montana; actor Roberto Cavazos;[127] Richard Dreyfuss's son Harry;[128] and eight people who worked on House of Cards.[129] The Guardian was contacted by "a number of people" who alleged that Spacey "groped and behaved in an inappropriate way with young men" as artistic director of the Old Vic.[130][131][132]

Spacey also appears on flight logs from Jeffrey Epstein's private jet from the early 2000s.[133]

Coming Out Controversy On the same day as Rapp's allegations against him, Spacey came out as gay when apologizing to Rapp. He said, "I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man."[134][135] His decision to come out via his statement was criticized by gay celebrities, including Billy Eichner, George Takei, Lance Bass, and Wanda Sykes, as an attempt to change the subject and shift focus from Rapp's accusation, for using his own drunkenness as an excuse for making a sexual advance on a minor, and for implying a connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse.[136][137][138]

Some readers additionally felt that by claiming he was "horrified" by Rapp's story, Spacey was attempting to paint himself as the victim of the alleged abuse.[139] In October 2022, Spacey expressed regret over the way he came out and said that it was "never [his] intention" to deflect from the allegations against him or conflate them with his sexual orientation.[140][141]

Reaction and ramifications Amid the allegations, filming was suspended on the sixth and final season of House of Cards. The show's production company had implemented "an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew", and stated that in 2012, "someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey. Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved."[142] According to the production company, Spacey "willingly participated in a training process and since that time MRC has not been made aware of any other complaints" involving him.[143] The show had been due to end in 2018.[125] The season was shortened from 13 episodes to eight, and Spacey was removed from the cast and from his role as executive producer.[144]

The Gore Vidal biographical film Gore, starring Spacey, which was set to be distributed by Netflix, was canceled,[145][146] and Netflix went on to sever all ties with him.[147] He was due to appear in All the Money in the World as industrialist J. Paul Getty; his scenes were cut and Christopher Plummer replaced him as Getty in reshoots.[67] In an interview with Variety, Plummer said, "It's really not replacing [Spacey]. It's starting all over again." Plummer elaborated saying, "I think it's very sad what happened to him... Kevin is such a talented and a terrifically gifted actor, and it's so sad. It's such a shame. That's all I can say, because that's it."[148]

The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences reversed its decision to honor Spacey with the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award.[149] On November 2, 2017, Variety reported that his publicist Staci Wolfe and talent agency Creative Artists Agency were ending their relationships with him.

Legal issues The Los Angeles District Attorney's office stated in April 2018 that it would investigate an allegation that Spacey had sexually assaulted an adult male in 1992.[158][159] In July 2018, three more allegations of sexual assault against Spacey were revealed by Scotland Yard, bringing the total number of open investigations in the UK to six.[160] In September 2018, a lawsuit filed at Los Angeles Superior Court claimed that Spacey sexually assaulted an unnamed masseur at a house in Malibu, California, in October 2016.[161]

In December 2018, Spacey was charged with a felony for allegedly sexually assaulting journalist Heather Unruh's 18-year-old son in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in July 2016.[162] Spacey pleaded not guilty to the charge on January 7, 2019.[163][164] Unruh's son told police he was texting with his girlfriend throughout the alleged "groping" incident. Spacey's defense attorneys spent months trying to obtain copies of the texts and the phone itself. In mid-May 2019, Unruh's son's personal attorney informed the court that the cell phone in question is "missing".[165] On June 4, 2019, the defense learned that when Unruh gave her son's cell phone to police in 2017, she admitted she had deleted some of the text messages.[165] Later that month, her son filed a lawsuit against Spacey, claiming emotional damages. On July 5, 2019, he voluntarily dismissed the claims with prejudice.[166]

On July 17, 2019, the criminal assault charge against Spacey was dropped by the Cape and Islands prosecutors.[167] When the anonymous massage therapist who accused him died, the last remaining criminal case against Spacey was closed.[168]

On September 9, 2020, Anthony Rapp accused Spacey in a complaint about actions that allegedly happened in 1986 (sexual assault and sexual battery) and intentional infliction of emotional distress under the Child Victims Act, which extended New York's statute of limitations for suits related to child sexual abuse.[123] Joining Rapp in the suit against Spacey was a man who requested to remain anonymous who accused Spacey of sexually abusing him in 1983, when he was 14 and Spacey was 24.[169][170] On June 17, 2021, the anonymous accuser was dismissed from the case due to his refusal to publicly identify himself.[171] As Rapp's trial lawsuit against Spacey commenced in October 2022, it was revealed that he had given an inaccurate description of the apartment where he alleged the abuse took place.[172][173] On October 17, the judge dismissed the emotional distress charges due to them being a "duplicate" of the battery charges.[14] On October 20, a jury found Spacey not liable.[174][175]

In 2020, Spacey and his production companies M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions were ordered to pay $31 million to MRC, the studio that produced House of Cards, for violating its sexual harassment policy.[176] Spacey appealed to have the arbitration award overturned, but the request was denied on August 4, 2022.[177]

On May 26, 2022, Spacey was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the United Kingdom with four counts of sexual assault against three complainants. The alleged offenses occurred between 2005 and 2013 in London and Gloucestershire.[178][179] According to the Crown Prosecution Service, it would only be possible to formally charge Spacey if he entered England or Wales. If Spacey refused to do so voluntarily an extradition process would have been necessary.[180] Nevertheless, in a statement to Good Morning America on May 31, 2022, Spacey said that he would "voluntarily appear in the U.K. as soon as can be arranged".[181]

In his first British court appearance on June 16, Spacey denied the allegations against him.[182] On July 14, 2022, Spacey pleaded not guilty to the charges in London. [183][184] On November 16, 2022, the CPS authorized an additional seven charges against Spacey, all related to a single complainant arising from incidents alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2004.[185][186] Three charges were dismissed before or during the trial which began on June 28, 2023, and on July 26, 2023, a jury found Spacey not guilty of the remaining nine charges.


Frankly I wish more court details were in the articles about this. There are a lot of accusers and info on the wiki, I can't help but feel if he was accused of assaulting women this would have gone differently

[–] PizzasDontWearCapes@sh.itjust.works 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

~~So, Spacey has been accused by a number of people and the charges from one accuser have been dismissed ~~

I need to learn to read the article fully before commenting 🤦‍♂️

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

No, these were nine accusations bought by four separate men. All were dismissed by the jury and notably this was a unanimous, not majority verdict.

There was also the earlier case bought in the US which was dismissed by the judge, I believe.

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[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 83 points 1 year ago (8 children)

There needs to be trust in the justice system. Otherwise, there's no point in having a justice system. If he's cleared, then there wasn't enough evidence and he should be considered innocent. That's how our justice system works. Don't break the social contract because of your vendetta against rich people.

The problem is that our society doesn't encourage people to immediately report crimes nor provide sufficient support for people who have been abused.

[–] Chetzemoka@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Do you think OJ Simpson is innocent? Would you want your daughter or sister to marry him?

The are different standards for a reason. Society is perfectly capable of being aware that someone is a giant dickbag without there being enough evidence to justify using the power of the state to remove their freedom and incarcerate them. Those are two extraordinarily different things and you know it.

To suggest otherwise is to imply that the government is a perfect arbiter of dispute that we should all just blindly accept. Something tells me you wouldn't be so keen on that stance when it worked against your interests

[–] Dreadrat@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago (17 children)

I think we need to recognise the moral panic of the situation too. People are out there looking to cancel others, others are out to use the moment for financial gain, and then there is the legitimate ones too. We dont know which they are and for the most part, the judicial system is only OK at separating them.

If you can smear someone and that's it their life is over, no matter the truth of it, then what justice is that?

What's the truth here.. not very many people know, clearly.

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[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The government performing arbitration is a power that society has vested in them. The solution to a flawed system is to fix the system, not vigilantism.

The lack of trust in the judiciary is a failure of government and a failure of society.

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[–] r1veRRR@feddit.de 29 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Innocence is VERY SPECIFICALLY NOT WHAT COURTS declare. They only ever declare that there wasn't enough evidence presented to proof guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

The presumption of innocence is an internationally-recognized human right.

[–] lazyvar@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The presumption of innocence doesn’t preclude the fact that criminal courts don’t find someone innocent, rather they find someone not guilty.

This is for the simple fact that it’s neigh impossible to establish someone’s innocence, whereas it’s easier to establish that there isn’t enough evidence to consider someone guilty.

This case is, and sexual assault cases in general are, a great example why we can’t expect criminal courts to establish innocence.

These are often cases with little evidence available either which way, because often there are no other witnesses. Even if there would be physical evidence of a sexual act, it’s still challenging to prove under what circumstances those acts have occurred, specifically on the matter of consent.

To expect a court to be able to say with certainty that something hasn’t occurred is unreasonable.

That is not to say that it isn’t good that we have these high standards before we impose punishment onto someone, but it is important to recognize what it means when a court comes to a decision.

Additionally the presumption of innocence is just that, a presumption to establish who has the onus to prove something, there is no additional meaning attributed to it in the legal principle beyond establishing who has the onus to prove the facts at hand.

In that regard it’s rather unfortunately named, as it would’ve been more apt to name it “the presumption of not guilty” but I suppose that doesn’t roll as nicely off the tongue

To add to that, that the presumption is specifically a principle that only has meaning in criminal court, because the burden of proof is generally higher than in civil court.

People can be, and have been, found liable in civil court for the very thing a criminal court has found them “not guilty” on, on the very basis that criminal court can’t establish innocence and that the bar that needs to be met in civil court is generally lower than in criminal court.

As such to bring up the presumption of innocence in a vacuum is kind of like bringing up the generally recognized human right of freedom of speech when a social media company bans someone and removes their post.

Yes, the concept exists, but it’s irrelevant because it doesn’t apply to the topic at hand, because the concept aims to govern a very specific circumstance that isn’t applicable here and withholding the important context surrounding it (i.e. the role it plays in criminal court for the presumption and the fact that it only limits governments for the freedom of speech) masks the limitations of said concept.

None of the above aims to reflect my opinion on Spacey’s innocence (or lack thereof), rather it aims to provide the necessary details to put things into context.

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[–] ILurkAndIKnowThings@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago

While you may trust implicitly, many have witnessed and experienced enough injustice to understand how the world works.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (6 children)

and he should be considered ~~innocent~~ not guilty.

FTFY. Words have meanings and those meanings are important.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Obviously, no one should be convicted if evidence is insufficient. The issue that I have is that it's difficult to believe someone is innocent when multiple people have alleged similar complaints. Does that make him guilty? No. But it increases my suspicion. And I'll never be able to shake that suspicion. It doesn't mean I want him locked up. It only means that I'm not comfortable with his art going forward. Which is a shame, because he's one of the best actors of our time.

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[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yeah, more apologetics from someone who doesn't get that our system is clearly failing us and we want, no DEMAND something new and different.

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[–] its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Love the wording for the charges, "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent".

That's an awful lot of words for rape.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The wording covers men and women. In the US rape is usually defined as vaginal penetration. Sex acts is usually defined as everything but vaginal.

[–] Splitdipless@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

...it's from a odd technicality where on ol' blighty, a male can't be "raped" because of how the laws are written. Call it a peculiarity of their system or sexism, but it results in oddly sounding charges like what you see reported at least.

[–] Waldowal@reddthat.com 45 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I don't think this changes thing. Not for me at least. He's had at least a dozen other people accuse him - including people that don't need his money or notoriety. And while he was cleared of criminal wrong doing in the Anthony Rapp case, I don't think he ever denied making an advance on a 14 year old boy. Just that he "didn't remember it" - which hardly matters. I don't care how drunk I get. I'm not accidentally going to hit on children.

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[–] ThirdWorldOrder@lemmy.one 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wish there was more details in the article. Wonder if he’s blacklisted now or will he be able to get back into movies or shows.

[–] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago

He has been doing a movie

I'm not sure if this trial changes things much after reading about the rest of the harassment cases around him on wikipedia. Kinda OJ/Cosby vibes

[–] peter@feddit.uk 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since when did film directors and producers not hire rapists

[–] xMadwood@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago

As we’ve seen, a lot of them are rapists too.

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[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Didn’t many of his accusers die?

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml 44 points 1 year ago

Yes. All after that weird "Kill Them With Kindness" youtube christmas video.

Linda Culkin.

An anonymous massage therapist.

Ari Behn, a Norwegian author and television host.

recap

And now, many of the remaining accusers seem to be reluctant to push forward. Almost like the christmas was a coded message to people he has dirt on, but Hollywood's never associated with people with delusions of spy novels. Clearly all those people were clout chasers.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I know it's incredibly difficult, but if you are ever sexually assaulted, it's crucial to report it as soon as possible.

Time erodes facts, witnesses, memory, and only hurts a victim's chance to seek justice. Prosecuting a sexual predator early also ensures that no one else can be victimized.

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[–] Fantomas@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

I choose now, to live, as a creepy old man. 👏👏👏👏

[–] mancy@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

Rich white man got away with crime. Shocker.

[–] RagnarokOnline@reddthat.com 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I just want to know if I can start enjoying The Usual Suspects again :’(

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