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Massage therapist who accused Kevin Spacey of sexual assault dies, attorney confirms

An anonymous massage therapist who was suing actor Kevin Spacey for an alleged sexual assault has died, according to a court filing.

A notice of the man's death was filed by Spacey's attorneys Tuesday in U.S. Central District Court, according to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times.

The man, who has remained anonymous and is referred to in court filings as "John Doe," filed claims in September 2018 that Spacey grabbed his genitals and forced him to grab Spacey's genitals during a massage in 2016 at a private residence in California, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Spacey has denied these allegations through his attorney.

A trial date in the case hadn't been scheduled.

"His untimely death was, to his family, a devastating shock that they are struggling to process and is so recent that they have not yet held his funeral service," Doe's attorney, Genie Harrison, said in a statement to the Times on Wednesday.

Now that the death notice has been filed, Doe's attorneys have 90 days to substitute Doe's estate as a plaintiff if the case is to continue, Harrison said.

"Mr. Doe’s family must now open his estate at the same time as planning a funeral and processing their grief," Harrison said. "Mr. Doe was a dignified, kind, middle-aged man traumatized by Spacey’s alleged sexually depraved attack. As a result of this case, other victims from around the world have reached out to our firm. Mr. Doe believed their harrowing stories, and in his final months he looked forward to standing up for all of them. His fight for justice is still very much alive."

Attorneys for Spacey haven't publicly commented on Doe's death.

Doe's death comes two months after a civil case and criminal case against Spacey, from one alleged victim, came to an end, Entertainment Tonight reported. On July 5, a man alleging the "House of Cards" actor groped him at a Massachusetts bar in 2016 dropped his civil lawsuit. On July 17, the sexual assault case was dropped by the court due to "unavailability of the complaining witness."