Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Abuse, 12 New Accusers Surface
Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Abuse ... Indictment Includes 12 Other Allegations
UPDATE
11:05 AM PT -- Cuba's attorney Mark Heller responded to the 12 allegations, telling us ... "Cuba denies all of these allegations. This is a typical scenario in which random people come out of the woodwork to accuse a celebrity who has already been charged. They have no credibility because Cuba was not charged with any of those allegations."
UPDATE
10:25 AM PT -- It's a 4-count indictment against Cuba and he's facing one count of forcible touching and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree for the new accuser -- both misdemeanors. He's facing the same 2 charges for the original accuser from the rooftop bar incident in June 2019.
UPDATE
The incident involving the new accuser went down at TAO Nightclub on Oct. 24, 2018. According to docs, Cuba allegedly pinched the accuser's buttocks without consent. She confronted him on the spot, and Cuba said he'd pinched her on the back.
UPDATE
The accuser claims he made a "sexually suggestive remark" to her earlier that same night.
UPDATE
The indictment also includes 12 allegations, for which Cuba is not being charged. However, prosecutors say they're including them to show a pattern of behavior. Among the 12 accusers are a woman who claims Cuba was at the Yard House in Long Beach, CA and while taking a photo with her he squeezed her butt and said something to the effect "You've got a good piece of ass."
UPDATE
Another accuser says he bit her shoulder a couple of times in the Hollywood bar Chi back in 2006. She also claims he thrust his pelvis against her leg and tried to lift up her shirt.
UPDATE
Around February 2011, another accuser says she had an encounter at an unnamed Los Angeles bar. She claims he grabbed her arm as she walked past him, placed his hand inside her blouse and squeezed her bare breast. She claims he said, in substance, "Sit on my face, pee in my mouth."
UPDATE
In 2014, while at Cafe Havana in Malibu, a woman claims Cuba reached under her skirt and touched her vagina over her underwear. She says she saw him about a year later at another bar in Santa Monica, punched him in the chest and yelled at him for the Cafe Havana incident.
UPDATE
Prosecutors say the 12 uncharged allegations would refute any claim from Cuba's team the 2 NYC incidents -- for which he's been indicted -- are innocent, accidental or consensual.
UPDATE
9:53 AM PT -- Cuba's arraignment is over, and he walked out of court free of handcuffs, and still confident he'll be exonerated. We're about to get details on the new indictment, but we're told it includes TWO misdemeanor charges related to the new accuser, and also charges related to the original accuser.
UPDATE
UPDATE
9:21 AM PT -- Cuba has just arrived to court for his arraignment on the new charge. Although he was smiling, his hands were cuffed behind him and he was flanked by an NYPD detective.
NYPD has a new set of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s fingerprints after booking the Oscar winner on a new charge ... one prosecutors are still keeping under wraps.
Cuba was processed Tuesday morning, ahead of his scheduled arraignment Tuesday afternoon. While that was going on, his attorney, Mark Heller, was in front of the Manhattan courthouse and said Cuba had surrendered to cops.
Heller also took several jabs at the prosecutors, insinuating they only tacked on this additional charge after coming up short on evidence in the initial case -- the alleged groping at a rooftop bar. He also groused at prosecutors moving both cases to New York's Supreme Court because it allows them to start the case all over, and delay Cuba from getting his day in court.
The Manhattan D.A. has remained tight-lipped about what exactly the new alleged victim is claiming. The charge will be revealed at Tuesday's arraignment, and we're told Cuba will plead not guilty.
As we reported ... Cuba's camp believes the woman is making a claim about an incident from 2018, but they're also claiming she reached out to shake him down for a settlement. Sounds like they're prepared to fight this claim in court as well.
Of course, he also denied the allegations against him from earlier this year -- when a woman claimed he touched her breast -- by pleading not guilty, with all smiles through pretty much every step of the case.
JUNE 2019
TMZ obtained surveillance footage from the night in question -- showing the alleged encounter, as well as some aftermath ... which appears to show Cuba making contact with her. Cuba and co. insist he touched her hand, and NOT her breast as she claims.
He initially tried getting the case tossed by trashing his accuser's mental state but to no avail.
Originally Published -- 8:13 AM PT
