Cuba Gooding Jr.’s defense team asked a judge Thursday to let them question an alleged victim at trial about her preference for threesomes and her small breast size.
“This accuser speaks very comfortably on her blog posts about her desire and interest and preference to be in a menage a trois rather than in monogamous relationships,” said attorney Peter Toumbekis of the 30-year-old woman who called cops on the “Men of Honor” actor in June 2019. She accused him of squeezing her breast at the Moxy Hotel in Times Square, which he has denied.
After Assistant DA Jenna Long said the line of questioning was barred by the rape shield law, Toumbekis argued that that it is a “philosophical” decision and “has nothing to do with her sexual history.”
During the hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, the judge said that the defense might be allowed to pursue this line of questioning if they proved it was relevant to their case.
Long then raised concerns that the defense might try to ask the alleged victim about her breast size based on arguments they previously made in court papers.
“Do you intend to ask the witness about the size of her breasts?” the judge asked.
“I actually do,” Toumbekis replied. “She talks about the fact that she’s self-conscious about her breast size, she’s self-conscious about her hairstyle,” he said of her blog posts, adding that her low self-esteem affects her perceptions. The judge wasn’t swayed but said if her testimony somehow opens the door, he’ll revisit his decision.
The defense team previously argued that the victim has “certain mental characteristics” that make her likely to falsely accuse someone famous.
As Gooding left the courthouse, a reporter asked him “Are women with small breasts delusional as your lawyer argues?”
Gooding winked, partly removed his mask and said, ”Black Lives Matter,” flashing the inside of the face-covering, in which Black Lives Matter was printed in white letters.
He has been indicted on six misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse and forcible touching stemming from the allegations of three accusers.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor was first busted after the Moxy Hotel incident before two additional accusers came forward. He was arrested again and charged with pinching the buttocks of Tao Downtown server Natasha Ashworth in October 2018 and subjecting a woman to “sexual contact without consent” at LAVO Nightclub on the Upper East Side one month earlier.
Long disclosed in court Thursday that eight more women have accused the actor of sexual misconduct, including an alleged victim who says that “the defendant followed her into a restroom and groped her” in Los Angeles in 2016.
That brings the tally to thirty women spanning six states who have now accused Gooding of boorish behavior. The judge ruled earlier this year that two of them will be allowed to testify at his upcoming trial slated for September even though he’s not charged for those acts.
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