No 'perp walk' for Kevin Spacey? He's trying to avoid his arraignment on sex-crime charge

Kevin Spacey is trying to skip appearing for the ritual "perp walk" before a mob of media cameras when he is arraigned on a felony sexual-assault charge next month in Massachusetts.

No way, Nantucket Island prosecutors say.

Spacey's lawyers filed a motion Friday seeking permission not to appear at his Jan. 7 arraignment on a charge he groped an 18-year-old busboy at a Nantucket restaurant bar in July 2016.

The Nantucket District Court clerk's office does not yet have a copy of that motion but they did have a copy of the response to the motion from Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office: Prosecutors declared they won't agree to a waiver of Spacey's presence.

That will make it more difficult for Spacey to persuade a judge to let him avoid appearing.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Giardino said in his response to Spacey's motion that a defendant is required at an arraignment under Rule 7 of Massachusetts criminal code, which states that "a defendant who receives a summons...shall be ordered to appear before the court for arraignment on a date certain."

Spacey has been summoned: After a Dec. 20 probable-cause hearing in Nantucket District Court, Magistrate Ryan Kearney issued a criminal complaint for a felony charge of indecent assault and battery against Spacey, under his real last name of Fowler.

O'Keefe confirmed Monday that Spacey had been charged but has said little else about the case.

Giardino's response was just one page but it was clear: The district attorney's office has not and will not agree to let Spacey stay home, wherever that is at the moment.

"Furthermore, during a telephone call on Dec. 27 with (Spacey's local attorney Juliane) Balliro, she was specifically informed that the Commonwealth would not agree to the waiver," Giardino wrote.

"Allowing the defendant's presence to be waived would be a direct violation of Rule 7, and his motion should be denied."

Spacey's arraignment in a tiny courthouse on touristy Nantucket promises to be a media maelstrom, and not just because of the Oscar-winning actor's celebrity and the salacious nature of the alleged crime.

More: Kevin Spacey scandal: A complete list of the 15 accusers

It will be the first time Spacey has been seen in public for more than a year, after a string of men began coming forward to publicly accuse him of various kinds of sexual misconduct dating back decades and crossing jurisdictions from London to Los Angeles.

Spacey is only the second entertainment figure charged with a sex crime in connection with the #MeToo movement, even though dozens of prominent men in the entertainment and media industries have lost jobs, careers, families and reputations due to credible allegations of sexual misconduct dating back decades and ranging from harassment to rape.

So far, the only commentthat Spacey has made in connection with the Nantucket charge is a baffling video he posted on YouTube only hours after the charge became public. Entitled "Let Me Be Frank," Spacey delivered a "House of Cards"-inspired monologue as his former character, Frank Underwood, questioning whether people should believe "the worst without evidence."

"Because I can promise you this: If I didn’t pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn’t do," he says toward the end.

Spacey's video evoked a surge of outrage and mocking on social media as legal and public-relations commentators scratched their heads and wondered whether Spacey had damaged himself and his defense with the stunt.

Spacey's Los Angeles-based defense attorney, Alan Jackson, did not return a message from USA TODAY.

Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore, a spokeswoman for O'Keefe, declined to comment further.

And Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for Spacey's accuser (who is the son of local ex-TV news anchor Heather Unruh), did not return a message from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No 'perp walk' for Kevin Spacey? He's trying to avoid his arraignment on sex-crime charge