Cuba Gooding Jr has pleaded not guilty to groping a woman in a New York nightclub as his lawyer said the Oscar winner is “frisky but not inappropriate”.
The actor, 51, surrendered to authorities after a 29-year-old woman told police he grabbed her breast on Sunday night while he was intoxicated at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge.
The star appeared in court in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to forcible touching and sexual abuse. He will next appear in court on June 26. His lawyer Mark Heller claimed security videos would exonerate the actor.
“Mr Gooding has not acted inappropriately in any shape or form,” he said. “Nothing in the video could even be considered ambiguous and I am shocked and horrified that this case is being prosecuted.”
The allegations are the latest controversy for Gooding, who has been dogged by accusations of hard partying and questionable behaviour.
His surrender came hours after it was reported that a second woman came forward with a separate groping allegation against the actor in 2008.
Mr Heller said he did not think the 2008 allegation suggested a pattern of misbehaviour but said his client was “sometimes frisky but not inappropriate”.
Gooding won an Oscar for Jerry Maguire in 2007. In 2016 he played O.J. Simpson in American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson.
