Star witness in Kevin Spacey case passes away while actor demands sex assault accuser’s passwords

Kevin Spacey and his legal team are making some damning statements about the teenager he is accused of groping at a Nantucket bar and the boy’s family in a handful of new motions.

The defense team for the disgraced actor submitted five motions to the court on Wednesday, requesting that the young man who said he was sexually assaulted by the actor be required to hand over the entire contents of his cloud along with all relevant passwords.

Spacey’s team is also seeking all correspondence regarding the case that was sent by the civil attorney hired by the victim’s family.

All the money in the world: One motion demands information on the civil lawyer hired by Spacey’s accuser and his family (the accuser’s mother Heather Unruh at a new conference announcing the allegations in 2017), with the defense arguing this is all a ploy for money

House of scarred: The accuser and his family ‘have a significant financial motive to fabricate the instant allegations’ writer Spacey’s attorney (the scene of the alleged incident)

That section of the 70-plus pages of court filings states that Mitchell Garabedian was hired to pursue a lawsuit for the family, and accuses the teen of using the criminal case to try and confirm his ‘lies.’

Alan Jackson, the Los Angeles lawyer that is representing Spacey stated that the boy and his family ‘have a significant financial motive to fabricate the instant allegations.’ 

Garabedian is being asked to hand over all correspondence between himself and the other lawyers at his firm with the district attorney’s office.

Jackson also asked that judge that a copy of the contract with the victim’s family and and the date, time and length of all appointments between the family and the law firm be turned over as well.

There is also concerns about an an investigation Garabedian did into the claims, with the defense expressing concern that they have not seen these reports.

Garabedian had stated that he turned his findings into law enforcement, and now the defense wants to make certain that detectives independently investigated all his findings.

This is nothing new for Garabedian, who was a key attorney for victims of the Catholic Church who sued the diocese.

That case was later made into the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, in which Garabedian was played by Stanley Tucci. 

The judge will likely rule on these motions Monday when the lawyers are back in court sans Spacey, who was told he did not need to appear in person for that preliminary hearing while previously on the island in January for his formal indictment.

The filing also makes it clear that Spacey and his lawyers are looking to do a very deep dive into the accuser’s personal accounts and phones. 

Real: Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian is being asked to hand over all correspondence between himself and the district attorney’s office

Reel: Garabedian was a key attorney for victims of the Catholic Church who sued the diocese and in the film Spotlight he was played by Stanley Tucci (above with Mark Ruffalo)

As was already stated in earlier filings, Spacey and his team want access to every text the young man sent for the months before and after the dates of the alleged incident.

‘Text messages consistent with statements provided to law enforcement are likely to reveal that [redacted] joked about the incident with friends for months after the incident and that his mother is the driving force behind these allegation,’ states the court filing.  

The defense also wants the credit card receipts for everyone who was at the bar that night so that they may try and contact potential witness.

That move comes two weeks after a key witness Spacey had in the case passed away.

Joe Pantorno, the owner of The Club Car who sold the restaurant and bar shortly after the alleged incident, died at the age of 68 in Florida.

He had told detectives that he witnessed no groping on the night of the incident and might have testified about the accuser joking around just one day later while recounting was happened. 

Jackson also requested employment records and surveillance footage from The Club Car. 

The actor stated in a previous motion obtained by DailyMail.com that the teenager ‘claimed he was a 23-year-old student studying business at Wake Forest University’ after he ‘sought out a friend for the specific purpose of introducing him to [Spacey].’

It goes on to state that the teen ‘welcomed drinks from [Spacey], let [Spacey] put his arm around him near the piano while they did sing-a-longs and even left the bar to smoke with [Spacey].’

That behavior, combined with the fact that the teen gave Spacey his number,  suggests ‘mutual and consensual flirting’ states the motion.

At no point does Spacey deny groping the young man.  

The motion states that once Spacey began to grope his accuser the teen ‘did not object to the alleged touching, he did not ask [Spacey] to stop and he did not remove himself from the situation.’ 

Spacey is referred to a Mr Fowler (his real surname) in the motion.

In the initial filing the accuser said that this was because he froze, and suggested his lack of an erection as proof he was not enjoying the sex act. 

That behavior, combined with the fact that the teen gave Spacey his number, suggests ‘mutual and consensual flirting’ states the motion

The motion states that once Spacey began to grope his accuser the teen ‘did not object to the alleged touching, he did not ask [Spacey] to stop and he did not remove himself from the situation’

The motion also claims that the young woman who was in communication with the accuser was never even told about an assault. 

‘Although M.D. recounted in her statement that [redacted] appraised her of nearly all of the interactions between the two men during the course of their encounter, [redacted] never suggested that he had in any way been sexually assaulted,’ states the filing. 

It goes on to state that the young woman was never told about the assault later either, and had instead told police that the accuser was ‘simply drunk.’

She heard about the allegations when the accuser’s mother, Heather Unruh, held a press conference stating that her son had been sexually assaulted by Spacey. 

That motion was filed in support of the defense’s request to obtain all messages exchanged between the defendant and his then-girlfriend between the time of the alleged incident and now.

The prosecution has tried to limit that scope to the day of and after the alleged incident. 

It is noted by the defense that they believe this discovery will uncover the fact that ‘the complainant joked about the incident with his friends for months after the incident, and his mother is a driving force behind the emergence of the allegations.’  

There has been no decision on the motion at this time, and the next hearing in the trial is scheduled for March. 

Spacey was all smiles and seemed to be completely at ease on Monday morning as he snuck in the side door of the Nantucket courthouse, before being arraigned on a single count of Indecent Assault and Battery.

That charge carries a sentence of up to five years in jail, and Spacey was ordered to have no contact with the victim or his family.

Spacey was seen chatting and laughing with his lawyer before his case was called in front of the packed courthouse, and when it was his turn a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.

He was told that he could face 90 days in a prison should he commit a crime ahead of the trial and the judge ordered the actor to stay away from the teenage accuser and his family, referring to the young man as the ‘victim.’ 

The actor, who only spoke the words ‘thank you’ during the hearing, did have to make one quick stop on the way out to see a probation officer.

The pretrial hearing in the case was set for March 4, but Spacey will not have to appear in person and can instead call in to the court.