Cuba Gooding Jnr
Cuba
Gooding Jr. has been charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor and sex
abuse in the third degree relating to an alleged groping incident last weekend
in New York City.
Gooding
voluntarily surrendered to the NYPD for questioning on Thursday and pleaded not
guilty to the charges in a Manhattan court. The actor was released on his own
recognizance after the judge set the next court date for June 26.
Gooding
has been very cooperative with police and expects to be fully exonerated, his
attorney, Mark Heller, said during a news conference.
“In
my 50 years, almost of practicing law, I have never seen a case like this one
because there is not a scintilla of criminal culpability that can be attributed
to Mr. Cuba Gooding Jr. after I have extensively, with my staff, reviewed the
video of almost two hours which reflects the entire event for which we are here
today,” Heller told reporters. Mr. Gooding has not acted inappropriately
in any shape or form. Nothing in the video could even be considered ambiguous
and I, frankly, am shocked and horrified that this case is being
prosecuted,” he said.
NYPD met
with the Oscar winner after a 29-year-old woman filed a police report claiming
Gooding grabbed her breast Sunday at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in
Manhattan.
Gooding
has denied the claim. The woman in the alleged incident told police she was
with friends when she was confronted by a male patron whom she described as
Gooding, a law enforcement source told CNN
Wednesday.
“The male allegedly groped her
breasts,” the source said. “The victim later told cops she protested
at the unwanted touching and they argued about the encounter.”
The woman
left the bar and called 911 to report the alleged incident, the law enforcement
source said, and NYPD Manhattan Special Victims Squad investigated.
Asked
about another woman who alleged Gooding groped her buttocks in 2008 at a New
York City restaurant, the actor’s lawyer cited New York’s two-year statute of
limitations. That claim “certainly doesn’t establish any pattern of
conduct that would be relevant to the present proceedings,” Heller said.
–CNN
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