Seven more women have accused actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of forcible touching or sexual misconduct.
What We Know:
- The star currently faces three misdemeanor counts of forcible touching and three misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse involving incidents with three women. He has pleaded not guilty.
- In October, a dozen other women in addition to the three original women also accused Gooding of either inappropriately touching them or kissing them. Despite this, those allegations did not form the basis of additional charges against the actor.
- After the seven more women telling similar stories, this brings the number of alleged victims accusing Gooding of misconduct to 22. Prosecutors are looking to introduce these additional accusers as evidence of Gooding’s alleged “intent to gratify himself sexually” and a “lack of mistake or accident on his part.” The court has not yet decided whether these additional seven women will be permitted to testify.
- Gooding’s lawyer said in a statement that he believes the new allegations are “ancient and outdated and lacking in details”. He also stated that “Cuba Gooding, Jr. has and does deny all allegations of criminal conduct — unfortunately, people come out of the woodwork, making false allegations against Cuba.”
Gloria Allred, who has represented several women in high-profile sexual misconduct cases, said that she is representing a number of the new accusers.