Three more women have come forward to allege Cuba Gooding Jr. groped them, bringing the total number of people accusing the Academy Award-winning actor of sexual misconduct to five.
The new allegations hit as Gooding is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday in Manhattan on forcible touching charges involving two different women. The most recent incident involves a 29-year-old woman who says Gooding grabbed her breast without her consent at a Times Square rooftop bar in June. As the New York Daily News reports, the woman told police she believed Gooding was drunk at the time. The other woman who filed charges against the infamously hard-partying actor said she was groped by Gooding in October 2018.
While no additional charges have been filed in light of the new accusations, the Daily News reports that the accusers’ stories are similar, suggesting a pattern of sexual misconduct that goes back as far as 10 years.
Gooding’s lawyer Mark Heller dismissed the credibility of the accusations, telling the local paper any evidence of groping or harassment would have already been presented to a grand jury in the case Gooding is currently facing.
“The allegations will never result in a conviction for anything,” Heller said.
Gooding has drawn concern in the past for his messy public behavior. As USA Today notes, the Oscar-winning actor was criticized on social media for lifting up the skirt of American Crime Story co-star Sarah Paulson on stage at PaleyFest in March 2017. A few months prior, images of Gooding partying in Miami splashed across the internet, with witnesses at the time telling Page Six he was “a mess” and “beyond frisky with girls.”
Police told CBS2 New York they’re looking into the new claims.