New York (AFP)
The trial of the American actor Cuba Gooding Jr for sexual assault on three women will start on April 21, a Manhattan judge ordered Wednesday, a new sign that the #MeToo movement is making its place in the courts.
The 52-year-old actor is accused of unsolicited touching in three separate incidents.
In September 2018, he allegedly improperly touched a woman in an Italian restaurant in Manhattan.
The following month, he would have pinched the buttocks of a second woman in a nightclub, then in June 2019, the actor would have touched the breasts of a third in the bar of a New York hotel.
Oscar for best supporting role in 1997 for his performance as a professional football player in "Jerry Maguire", Cuba Gooding Jr pleaded not guilty to the six charges brought against him, the three main ones of which are each liable to one year from prison.
Also on Wednesday, judge Curtis Farber of the New York State Supreme Court authorized the prosecution to call two other women as witnesses at the trial.
They also claim to be victims of the actor, but the facts concerning them are not the subject of criminal proceedings.
The magistrate, on the other hand, dismissed 17 other women whom the Manhattan prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, also wanted to call to testify, to avoid that the accused is the victim of "undue prejudice".
Cuba Gooding Jr. became known with the film "Boyz'n the Hood, the law of the street" (1991). He recently played OJ Simpson in the mini-series "American Crime Story".
After the current Harvey Weinstein trial, and before that of R&B singer R. Kelly in Chicago in late April, the trial of Cuba Gooding Jr should be the third of the year for a man of power accused of sexual assault .
© 2020 AFP