Now, that would be prosecutable.
A former Boston TV news anchor held a press conference on Wednesday to share her son’s allegation of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey.
Heather Unruh, who worked at the ABC-affiliated television station WCVB until 2016, was joined by her daughter, Kyla, and lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney depicted in Spotlight. Her son, Spacey’s alleged victim, was not present and Unruh explained that the current climate is what spurred her son to give his permission for her to come forward about the alleged incident, which occurred last year.
“I have wanted to say something for a very long time, especially moments like when Kevin Spacey has the honor of hosting something like the Tony Awards and is celebrated as a man and an actor,” said Unruh, who initially took to Twitter on Oct. 13 to say that Spacey “assaulted a loved one.” Her social media posts gained traction and she told reporters after reading her statement that it was the ongoing women, and men, coming forward with their claims against Harvey Weinstein that spurred her son to feel ready to publicly tell his story.
“The climate in this country is changing. There’s a shift,” she said. “There is less victim-blaming going on now. I was really emboldened by the victims in the Harvey Weinstein case. They were astonishingly brave women and they’ve come out in such large numbers and it sparked a lot of conversation in our house about it being the right time.”
Unruh detailed her son’s experience with Spacey when reading a pre-written statement.
In July of 2016, her 18-year-old son, she says, was sexually assaulted by Spacey inside the Club Car Restaurant on Nantucket. Unruh says her son, who was not of legal drinking age, told Spacey he was and that the actor “bought him drink after drink after drink.”
“My son was a starstruck, straight 18-year-old young man who had no idea that the famous actor was an alleged sexual predator or that he was about to become his next victim,” she said. “When my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him.”