Cuba Gooding Jr. headed to trial over groping allegations
Cuba Gooding Jr attends the Virgin TV BAFTA Television Awards at The Royal Festival Hall on May 14, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Fred Duval/FilmMagic)
Notoriously hard-partying Cuba Gooding Jr. is headed to trial next month after a judge decided not to dismiss a criminal case against the actor over groping allegations.
The “Jerry Maguire” star was arrested in June after a 29-year-old woman reported he squeezed her breast without consent at a rooftop bar in Times Square. She told police the actor may have been intoxicated when he touched her.
Gooding Jr. has denied the allegations.
Prosecutors argued, however, that video evidence from the bar that night backs up the woman’s story.
Leading up to the decision, attorneys for the man who played O.J. Simpson in the first “American Crime Story” argued the woman he allegedly touched inappropriately had mental health problems.
He’s due in court Sept. 3 for the start of his own trial in New York.
The actor, who in the past found himself working multiple projects a year, has since slowed down on work. According to IMDb, since his roles on “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story” in 2016, he worked on only two other projects.
In an interview with an Australian publication, the actor admitted he's struggled to maintain working relationships with some directors in the industry.
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"I had all these big directors offering me roles, and I read their scripts and said: 'I don't think this part is right for me,'" he told News.com.au. "And what happens is, if you offend enough big directors, you get taken off their lists."
While he told the site he's passed on a number of Oscar-winning roles like "Ray," and "Hotel Rwanda," Gooding Jr. said his choice of roles left him broke.
"I got to buy both my mum and my wife's mum a house. I was on private jets and I was doing the limos, and then, all of a sudden, I was broke again."
