Cuba Gooding Jr.’s trial date set for sex-abuse case
Cuba Gooding Jr. will stand trial on Feb. 1 for allegedly groping three women in separate incidents, a Manhattan judge ruled Monday.
Gooding, who arrived to Manhattan Supreme Court wearing sunglasses, a dark gray suit and black mask, appeared before a judge to finalize the date more than two years after he was arrested in the sex abuse case.
“This case has been on my calendar for two years, going on three years. This is a firm trial date and it has to go,” Justice Curtis Farber ordered.
Gooding’s lawyer, Peter Toumbekis, had pushed to delay the in-person trial until late 2022, arguing that he had other cases that were older.
“I’ll make it work,” Toumbekis said in response to the judge’s ruling.
The “Jerry Maguire” star, who didn’t speak during the hearing, is charged with six misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse and forcible touching stemming from the allegations of three accusers.
Gooding was first arrested in June 2019 after allegedly squeezing a 30-year-old woman’s breast at the Moxy Hotel in Times Square.
He was also charged with pinching the behind of TAO Downtown server Natasha Ashworth in October 2018 and subjecting a woman to “sexual contact without consent” at LAVO Nightclub on the Upper East Side.
Gooding pleaded not guilty to the three separate alleged incidents.
If convicted of the top count, he faces up to one year behind bars.
