Cuba Gooding Jr to appear in court for pre-trial hearing

Cuba Gooding Jr will appear in court in person next month for a hearing on pre-trial matters in his sexual misconduct case.

In a video conference call with parties in the case, Judge Curtis Farber ordered the Oscar-winning actor to appear on August 11.

Gooding, 52, has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he violated three different women at three different Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019.

One of the women alleged Gooding pinched her buttocks. Another said he squeezed her breast.

He had been scheduled to go on trial in April, but that was postponed as coronavirus cases surged in New York and the state shut down most court matters.

Now that the number of new positive cases and hospital admissions are down in New York, courts are starting to reopen.

No new trial date for Gooding has been set.

Gooding’s lawyers have until July 31 to give prosecutors the names of witnesses and other evidence they plan to present, Mr Farber said.

Gooding’s lawyer, Mark Heller, has called the case a waste of “taxpayers’ money, resources and time”.

Mr Farber previously ruled that prosecutors can call two additional women to give evidence about their allegations that Gooding also violated them.

Those women, whose claims did not result in criminal charges, were among 19 other accusers whom prosecutors were seeking to call as witnesses.