Nicole Harnishfeger-Pool/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — A lawsuit accusing Kevin Spacey of sexually assaulting a now-deceased Los Angeles County massage therapist in 2016 has been dropped, according to court documents obtained by The New York Times.
The documents, filed in Federal District Court in California on Monday, state the lawsuit against Spacey has been “voluntarily dismissed with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be brought back before the court. No further details were provided.
“Mr. Spacey paid no money to the plaintiff,” Jennifer L. Keller, Spacey’s lawyer wrote in an email to the Times on Tuesday. “The plaintiff wished to dismiss the case and we stipulated to the dismissal to speed things up. What you see in the stipulation is all there is to see. Any reports to the contrary are false.”
The Hollywood Reporter had written on Tuesday that a “settlement” had prompted the conclusion of the case.
The massage therapist sued the 60-year-old House of Cards actor last January. The plaintiff died this past September, leaving his estate 90 days to continue the lawsuit on his behalf. The accuser’s cause of death has not been revealed.
The settlement comes less than a week after Scandinavian writer Ari Behn, who also alleged he was groped by Spacey, died by suicide, according to the Norwegian news service NTB.
Another sexual assault charge against Spacey was dropped by Massachusetts prosecutors back in July, after a young man who had accused the actor of fondling him at a Nantucket restaurant three years earlier declined to testify about exculpatory text messages the defense said were deleted.
Days earlier, the accuser dropped a civil suit he had filed against Spacey.
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