Cuba Gooding Jr., 51, smiled for the cameras on June 13, after he turned himself in to the Manhattan Special Victim’s Unit and emerged from the building in handcuffs. The Academy award winner surrendered, as he planned to, just days after he was accused of groping a 30-year-old woman in a Manhattan bar on June 9. He has since been charged with one count of misdemeanor forcible touching, according to TMZ.
Cuba arrived to the Manhattan Special Victim’s Unit with his attorney, Mark Heller, on Thursday, and Mark spoke to TMZ, saying his client is totally innocent. Mark said he watched more than two hours of video from the night of the alleged incident and he claims that nothing shows Cuba committing a crime at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge.
As Page Six first reported, a woman called 911 on Monday, June 10, alleging that Cuba touched her breast without consent Sunday evening at the bar. Cuba, however, denies touching anyone inappropriately that night. While flying out of LAX on June 11, he told TMZ that nothing had happened that could be misconstrued as groping. “I trust the system,” Cuba Gooding Jr. said. “There’s a tape that shows what really happened [and] that’s the most important thing. … I was at the club. I left. I met a bunch of people. I said hello, I took pictures and, you know, you have to have faith in what people are saying. Now, I’m giving the process the chance to show what happened [and] what went down.”
Following the alleged incident, NYPD gave the following statement to HollywoodLife: “The NYPD takes sexual assault extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors.”