Trigger Warning: The following article contains graphic details of an alleged sexual assault.
Seven more women have come forward accusing Cuba Gooding Jr. of sexual misconduct.
According to recent court papers obtained by Page Six, Manhattan prosecutors allege the 51-year-old actor groped and forcibly kissed a woman, ripped her tights and only stopped once she bit him at the Sundance Film Festival. With the addition of the seven new accounts, that means a total of 22 women have accused the actor at this time.
Page Six reports:
In January 2009, while attending the star-studded festival in Park City, Utah, Gooding allegedly invited a woman to another event, and the pair then went to a concert, the papers state.
When the woman told the actor she was going to leave, he “seemed agitated” and offered to walk her out.
In a back, secluded hallway, he “began to kiss [her] without consent” and when she pushed him away, noting Gooding was married, he “placed his hand on her buttocks,” the papers state.
Then he pushed “his hand forcefully into the crotch area of her tights, placing his fingers on her anus” and ripping her tights, prosecutors say.
The Jerry Maguire star only let the woman go when she bit his cheek, “causing him to recoil.”
“Unfortunately, people come out of the woodwork, making false allegations against Cuba, as oftentimes happens when a celebrity is accused by the District Attorney’s Office in a Public Forum,” Gooding’s attorney Mark Heller said in a statement. “The spurious, uncharged allegations offered by the District Attorney’s Office are so ancient and outdated and lacking in details and impairs the Defendant from defending against them; thus, it demonstrates that the District Attorney’s Office’s motive in introducing these inflammatory, uncharged allegations is not for any probative value, but to merely gain an advantage against the Defendant and prejudice the Jury against the Defendant.”
Gooding pleaded not guilty to previous sexual misconduct charges (involving three women) when he turned himself in to the NYPD in October. Prosecutors are hoping to introduce the other allegations into the court case in order to prove a history of sexual abuse.
Gooding is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 22.