Actor Cuba Gooding Jr turned himself in to police on Thursday amid allegations that he groped a woman in a Manhattan nightclub.
Minutes later he was charged with forcible touching, the New York police department said.
Gooding, 51, smiled and waved as he arrived to speak to investigators in the NYPD’s special victims division.
A 29-year-old woman told police that Gooding, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for Jerry Maguire, grabbed her breast when he was drunk at about 11.15pm on Sunday.
Gooding denies the allegations. He pleaded not guilty to forcible touching and sexual abuse charges at a night court arraignment.
He was released on his own recognizance after about six hours in police custody.
Gooding did not discuss his case as he left court, instead offering well wishes to David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox star hospitalized after he was shot Sunday in the Dominican Republic.
“Get well, Big Papi,” Gooding said while passing a phalanx of cameras and reporters in the courthouse lobby.
Gooding’s lawyer said security video will exonerate the actor.
Video from Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge in Manhattan showed no criminality on Gooding’s part, lawyer Mark Heller told the Associated Press. “There is not the slightest scintilla of inappropriate conduct on his part,” Heller said.
After reviewing the security video, Heller said he was hesitant to let Gooding surrender but decided to go through with it. He said he was surprised police and prosecutors were moving forward with the case.
Heller also disputed allegations in media reports from a second woman said to have come forward in recent days, who told police Gooding grabbed her buttocks at a New York restaurant in 2008.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment.
Gooding was involved in another bar-related incident in New Orleans in 2012. In that case, a bartender said the actor was agitated with customers who wanted photos with him and that he pushed her when she asked him to leave.
An arrest warrant was issued but the bartender declined to press charges.
Videos posted on social media at the weekend show Gooding at the Manhattan bar singing the Journey hit Faithfully and posing for pictures with fans.
The bar, on the roof of the Moxy Hotel near Times Square, features a mini-golf course and sweeping views of the Empire State Building and other famous city landmarks.
Gooding, a native of New York’s Bronx borough, rose to fame after starring in Boyz N the Hood in 1991. He recently played OJ Simpson in the FX crime drama The People v OJ Simpson.
