Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to pinching a woman’s buttocks in a nightclub last October, four months after he was charged with groping a woman in a separate incident.
Manhattan prosecutors said Gooding pinched the woman at Manhattan’s Tao nightclub after making a sexually suggestive remark to her earlier in the evening, and denied it when she confronted him.
Gooding was accused in June of touching a woman’s breasts at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar in Manhattan, a charge he has denied. Both alleged incidents are part of the same criminal case.
He is charged with one count of forcible touching and one count of sexual abuse, which are misdemeanours, in connection with each alleged incident.
Gooding, 51, won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for the film “Jerry Maguire” and is known for roles in movies including “A Few Good Men” and “The Butler” and in the television miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Gooding had been scheduled to go to trial on the original charges on Thursday, but the additional charges mean the trial will be delayed. No new trial date has been set.
