Seven more women have accused actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of forcible touching or sexual misconduct, according to a motion filed by prosecutors Monday in New York City.
Gooding, 51, faces three misdemeanor counts of forcible touching and three misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse involving incidents with three women, who allege the actor groped them without their consent. He has pleaded not guilty.
In court documents released in October, a dozen other women also accused Gooding of either inappropriately touching them or kissing them, though those allegations did not form the basis of additional charges against the actor.
In Monday’s filing from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, seen by NBC News, seven more women are telling similar stories. Along with the three women whose allegations form the basis of the criminal charges, this brings the number of alleged victims accusing Gooding of misconduct to 22.
Prosecutors seek to introduce these additional accusers as evidence of Gooding’s alleged “intent to gratify himself sexually” and a “lack of mistake or accident on his part.” The court has not yet decided whether these additional seven women will be permitted to testify.
Gooding’s lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, said the new accusations were “ancient and outdated and lacking in details.”
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“Cuba Gooding, Jr. has and does deny all allegations of criminal conduct — unfortunately, people come out of the woodwork, making false allegations against Cuba,” Heller said in a statement.
One woman said she was at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2009 when Gooding kissed her without consent and, after she pushed him away, touched her so forcefully near her crotch that her tights ripped, according to the court documents. She was only able to get away after biting him on the cheek.
Another woman who refused Gooding’s advances said the actor put his hands inside her pants and grabbed her buttocks and told her: “I know you want to be an actress; I can ruin you.”
Many of the seven women from Monday’s motion say Gooding kissed them without their consent, on the mouth or cheek. One woman accuses him of licking her cheek after she tried to avoid his kiss.Another woman says Gooding told her and a friend that they were going to urinate on him. During a future encounter, he told the same woman, “you’re going to sit on my face, pee in my mouth and pee all over me.”
Monday’s court filing sought to use the new allegations to portray a pattern of behavior.
“Similar to the first dozen incidents, these additional incidents each demonstrate that the defendant routinely approaches women while at bars or nightclubs with whom he has limited or no prior interaction, and touched them inappropriately,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors noted in court documents that Gooding’s legal team dismissed his actions as “commonplace gestures” that were “misperceived” because of a “hyper-sensitive” environment.
The district attorney’s office contended: “Touching a woman with the intent to gratify one’s self sexually or to degrade her is not innocent or common place behavior.”
Gloria Allred, who has represented several women in high-profile sexual misconduct cases, said Tuesday that she is representing a number of the new accusers. The attorney said that the women are willing to testify if the court allows them to speak at trial.
“I can assure Mr. Gooding’s defense lawyers that my clients will not be intimidated or deterred by unfair and untrue attacks upon them,” Allred said.
Diana Dasrath contributed.
