Judge unsure if Kevin Spacey case will 'continue or collapse' after accuser pleads the 5th

The judge in the Kevin Spacey case was unsure on Monday whether it will "continue or collapse" after the man accusing the actor of groping pleaded the fifth, CBS News reports.

Spacey is facing charges of indecent assault and battery over his alleged 2016 groping of a busboy in Nantucket. In a pre-trial hearing on Monday, Spacey's accuser was asked about the status of his cell phone, which he used to send text messages and video as Spacey allegedly groped him. The accuser's team has provided some text message exchanges but say they don't know where the phone is.

The accuser on Monday denied deleting texts from the phone, but when Spacey's attorney, Alan Jackson, said that he could be held criminally liable if he altered evidence, the accuser said he "was not previously aware of that law" and said he would be exercising his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, The New York Times reports. Jackson subsequently argued that the case is now "compromised" and moved for it to be dismissed, The Daily Beast reports.

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Although Judge Thomas Barrett did not do so, he said he doesn't know if "the case is going to continue or collapse." He also said that it "may be pretty hard to get around" the accuser potentially not testifying at a trial, CNBC reports, adding that "the matter may well be dismissed for the reason indicated."