London
Prosecutor says Kevin Spacey used celebrity status for ‘opportunity grab’ described by accusers
LONDON (AP) — It was more than a coincidence that three of Kevin Spacey ‘s four accusers described similar crotch-grabbing incidents, a prosecutor said Wednesday in her closing argument at his sexual assault trial.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told a London jury that Spacey seized brief moments for an “opportunity grab” and was able to get away with it for years because he was a celebrity.
The two-time Oscar winner long had benefited from a “trinity of protection,” knowing that men he attacked would not complain. If they did, he knew they wouldn’t be believed; if they were believed, he knew authorities wouldn’t take action because of his status, Agnew said.
That began to change after allegations in the U.S. arose in 2017 during the height of the #MeToo movement when a fellow American actor accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior decades earlier. Other allegations followed and eventually led the four men, who did not know each other, to independently complain to English police.
“Are they all motivated by ‘money, money, money’ as you were told rather dramatically by the defendant?” Agnew said in quoting a snippet of Spacey’s testimony. “Or have they all just had enough of the secret of the truth that they have been carrying around for many years? They’re no longer prepared to be the secret keeper of someone who treated them so badly.”
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual and indecent assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. Originally he had faced 13 charges but the judge on Wednesday removed four counts that duplicated the same allegations under an older statute.
The actor testified over two days and denied sexually assaulting three men. He said he had consensual encounters with two and downplayed crotch-grabbing allegations by a third man as a “clumsy pass.” He said allegations he made racially insensitive remarks to a fourth man and violently grabbed his private parts like a striking cobra were “pure fantasy.”
The acts alleged between 2001 and 2013 escalated from unwanted touching to aggressive crotch-grabbing and, in one instance, performing an oral sex act on an unconscious man.
The defense has cast doubt on the accounts of the accusers and suggested they were motivated by money. Two of the men have filed lawsuits against Spacey and a third man reached out through Spacey’s website seeking to settle the criminal case.
Spacey presented photos one of the men had posted on social media of the two of them and a photo that man sent him from a mountain trek he took where he claimed to have read a Shakespeare soliloquy at Spacey’s suggestion from atop a peak.
Other defense witnesses said Spacey would have had little or no opportunity to assault a man backstage at a charity event, as the alleged victim claimed.
California
Defense wants trial in attack against Nancy Pelosi’s husband moved from San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lawyers for the man charged in last year’s attack against former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband want his federal trial to be moved out of San Francisco, saying intense publicity means he won’t get a fair trial.
David DePape is set to appear in federal court Wednesday. His lawyers will ask the judge to move the trial to the city of Eureka, neighboring Oregon. The federal trial is set to start Nov. 13.
His federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, say media attention on the case in the San Francisco Bay Area has tainted the pool of jurors. They said a survey they commissioned shows many potential jurors already believe he is guilty of the crimes and would be unable to change their minds.
Prosecutors say DePape broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home on Oct. 28 seeking to kidnap the former speaker — who was out of town — and instead beat her 83-year-old husband with a hammer. The violence sent shockwaves through the political world.
DePape, 43, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to kidnap a federal official and assaulting a federal official’s family member. He also pleaded not guilty to state charges, including attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He remains jailed without bail. The state trial hasn’t been scheduled.
Linker and Chuang also said they fear potential jurors in San Francisco could be biased against DePape because Nancy Pelosi, who has represented the city in Congress since 1987, remains a popular figure in the Bay Area.
They said Bay Area media outlets have extensively covered the case and played video footage of the assault on Paul Pelosi, the 911 call, and a police interview of DePape shortly after his arrest.
Footage of the attack was released to the public in January after a California judge denied prosecutors’ request to keep it secret.
Missouri
High Court weighs fate of amendment to restore abortion rights
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Whether Missouri voters get a chance weigh in on legalizing abortion is now up to state Supreme Court judges, who on Tuesday heard arguments in a case about Republican infighting that has stalled the amendment’s progress.
Judges did not indicate when they might rule on the case, which centers around a proposed amendment to enshrine in the constitution the individual right to make decisions about abortion, childbirth and birth control. Abortion-rights supporters proposed it after the state banned almost all abortions last summer.
The amendment hit a snag in April, when Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to sign off on Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s cost estimate.
Without Bailey’s approval, abortion-rights supporters have not been able to start work getting the signatures needed to put the measure before voters in 2024.
They sued, and a circuit court judge last month ordered Bailey to approve the cost estimate. He has not, instead appealing to the Supreme Court to validate him.
ACLU attorney Tony Rothert on Tuesday asked judges to force Bailey to act so he no longer can singlehandedly “hold hostage and potentially even kill an initiative.”
“The attorney general’s actions here are the most serious threat to direct democracy that has ever happened in Missouri,” Rothert said.
Assistant Attorney General Jason Lewis told Supreme Court judges Tuesday that Fitzpatrick’s office used “nonsensical methodologies” to calculate the cost estimate of at least $51,000 annually in reduced local tax revenues.
Lewis argued the price tag could be up to $12.5 billion each year because of reduced tax revenue from fewer births and the complete loss of federal Medicaid funding.
“The auditor could have and should have done more,” Lewis said.
Auditor’s Office attorney Robert Tillman said the Attorney General’s Office engaged in “legal gymnastics” to defend the stonewalling.
“The attorney general would have you believe that facts and figures are argumentative and prejudicial,” Tillman said. “But numbers are numbers.”
Georgia
Judge refuses to toss discrimination lawsuits over voting districts
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss lawsuits alleging Georgia’s congressional and legislative districts illegally discriminate against Black voters.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled Monday that he could only decide disputes over the facts of the cases and the credibility of the witnesses after a full trial, which he set for September.
“Additionally, given the gravity and importance of the right to an equal vote for all American citizens, the court will engage in a thorough and sifting review of the evidence that the parties will present in this case at a trial,” Jones wrote.
The orders apply to three cases, one challenging the lines of Georgia’s 14 congressional districts and two challenging the lines of the 56 state Senate and 180 state House districts. All three lawsuits allege that the maps violate the federal voting rights act by weakening the growing electoral strength of Black voters.
Plaintiffs want Jones to order one more congressional district be drawn where Black voters will be able to elect their chosen candidate. That could give Democrats one more congressional district. Republicans hold nine districts and Democrats hold five, after legislative Republicans redrew maps to improve their position from an 8-6 majority in 2020.
The cases had been on hold while Alabama had challenged the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court last month stood behind its interpretation of the law, which says that district lines can’t result in discriminatory effects, rejecting Alabama’s attempt to change the rules. That cleared the way for the Georgia cases to move ahead.
Jones has already said that it’s likely that some parts of Georgia’s redistricting plans violate federal law. However, last year, he allowed the new congressional and state legislative maps to be used for 2022’s elections, finding changes close to elections would have been too disruptive.
In the state legislative cases, the challengers argue a map could include three additional majority Black state Senate districts and five additional majority-Black state House districts. Those changes, if approved, would be unlikely to cost Republicans partisan control of either legislative chamber.
Jones has scheduled a joint trial for all three lawsuits starting Sept. 5, which means districts could be redrawn before the 2024 congressional and state legislative elections.
The judge said one key argument advanced by the state to defend the maps — that divisions between Black and white voters are caused by partisanship and not race — didn’t apply at this stage of the case, saying only the effects of those divisions mattered now. He also rejected efforts by plaintiffs to win a ruling without a trial, saying he couldn’t rule “without making factual determinations, weighing evidence, and assessing the credibility of the experts.”
At least two other cases were also filed challenging Georgia’s new maps.
Missouri
Second police officer charged in connection with attack
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A second police officer from a suburban St. Louis department is now facing charges after a man was allegedly driven to a secluded spot and beaten until his jaw broke.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell on Wednesday announced that his office charged Northwoods, Missouri, Police Officer Michael Hill, 51, with second-degree kidnapping. Hill is jailed on $100,000 cash-only bond and doesn’t yet have a listed attorney.
On Monday, Northwoods Officer Samuel Davis, 26, was charged with assault and kidnapping, stemming from an arrest on July 4. St. Louis County police said Davis handcuffed a man, then turned off his own body camera before driving him to a secluded spot, where the man was allegedly pepper-sprayed, beaten with a baton and told not to return to Northwoods.
A witness called 911 after finding the bloodied man. Police said the victim’s jaw was broken, among other serious injuries.
The probable cause statement in Hill’s arrest said he was Davis’ supervising officer and was with Davis when the man was taken into custody at a Walgreens store. The statement said Hill told a store employee “what would happen to the victim.”
Like Davis, Hill never activated his body camera, never informed the dispatcher that a suspect was in custody, and didn’t write a report, the probable cause statement said.
“There is no excuse for this criminal conduct, and my office will prosecute these officers to the fullest extent of the law,” Bell said in a statement.
Northwoods police Chief Dennis Shireff told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Davis has been suspended as the investigation plays out.
