Cape Town – In June, Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged with forcible touching – a misdemeanour offence punishable under New York state law by one year in prison – after he allegedly groped a woman in a Manhattan bar.
Mark Heller, Gooding’s lawyer, said video footage and witnesses on the scene would contradict the woman’s statement, while Gooding pleaded not guilty. On Wednesday, prosecutors rejected Gooding’s request to throw the case out because the victim is mentally unstable.
The defense used social media posts in which the victim said her “brain was one big fat mess”, and she was “starving to be seen”, to make the claim, but Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jenna Long argued, “None of these statements bear any relation to the facts of this case or to [the] defendant’s guilt or innocence. They were simply inflammatory comments used to embarrass and humiliate the complainant.”