Cuba Gooding Jr. Sexual Assault Case To Go To Trial

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr.‘s sexual assault case is going to trial after a New York judge threw out a motion to dismiss the case.

According to court documents, Gooding Jr. grabbed the breast of a 29-year-old female victim on a Manhattan rooftop bar last June.

Gooding Jr. had filed a petition for dismissal of the case, denying there was any sexual misconduct. In the petition, he submitted the statement of two witnesses who claimed that the alleged interaction never occurred. In addition, he submitted video evidence of the incident claiming that the video “and the affirmations submitted establish that he did not squeeze the complainant’s breast,” according to the document.

Gooding Jr. also stated that the complainant had “various mental health issues and that his character and history weigh in favor of dismissal.” He also claimed that law enforcement committed “serious misconduct.”

However, the judge did not agree with his arguments. On Wednesday, Judge Phyllis Chu set a trial date of September 3 saying that there are “conflicting factual allegations between the criminal court information and the defendant’s motion [that] should be resolved at trial.”

Gooding has been charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor, and sex abuse in the third degree relating to the alleged groping incident.

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Gooding and his team remain optimistic, though. In a statement Thursday, Gooding’s attorney Mark Jay Heller said, “I am totally confident that when a jury of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s peers assess all of the exculpatory evidence in this case, that he will be totally exonerated.”

The Jerry Mcguire actor surrendered to police peacefully and plead not guilty in a Manhattan courtroom. He now awaits his trial set for the beginning of September.