Cuba Gooding Jr. facing 7 more accusers, for total of 22, in his groping case

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Cuba Gooding Jr. appears in NY courtroom Cuba Gooding Jr. appears in NY courtroom

Manhattan prosecutors have added seven more accusers of Cuba Gooding Jr. to the list of a dozen women they hope to call to testify against him at his trial on misdemeanor groping charges next year.

The new accusers, all unnamed, as were the previous 12, claim that Gooding sexually touched them without their consent in nightclubs, restaurants, bars and at film festivals in multiple states and in encounters dating as far back as 2003.

The Oscar-winning actor, 51, is not being charged with any crimes in connection with their allegations because they're either too old or they did not allegedly take place in Manhattan.

Instead, prosecutors hope to use these witnesses, called Molineux witnesses in New York, to bolster their actual charged case against Gooding, who has been indicted on three counts of forcible touching involving three women in Manhattan bars and restaurants in June 2019, October 2018 and September 2018.

Molineux witnesses are used by prosecutors to help establish that a defendant has engaged in a pattern of behavior – prior alleged bad acts. Such testimony about uncharged alleged crimes can help persuade a jury to convict on the actual counts charged.

But a judge has to rule on whether to admit such witnesses at trial and how many. The prosecution has now presented 19 accusers of uncharged crimes in addition to the three women whose allegations form the basis of Gooding's indictment.

Gooding's next court date is scheduled for Jan. 22. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers, Mark Heller and Peter Toumbekis, reiterated that Gooding denies all allegations of criminal conduct.

Prior-bad-acts witnesses are getting new attention because they proved relevant in the 2018 conviction of comedy icon Bill Cosby on three sex crimes in Pennsylvania. Cosby's appeal of his conviction, based in part on the prior-bad-acts accusers allowed to testify against him, was rejected by a state appellate court in a ruling issued Tuesday.

Also, the Manhattan trial judge in the scheduled Jan. 6 sex-crimes trial of Harvey Weinstein has already ruled that in addition to the two women whose allegations are the basis of Weinstein's indictment, multiple other accusers will be allowed to testify against him. Weinstein is due in court again on Wednesday.

According to court filings from prosecutors in the Gooding case released Monday, the seven new accusers came to the attention of the district attorney's office since Oct. 15, following widespread media coverage of Gooding's case after his arrest in June.

The allegations made by the witnesses include a woman who says Gooding groped her breast and attempted to kiss her in a crowd at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2003. A second woman alleges Gooding forcibly groped her at the festival in 2009.

Other witnesses allege Gooding groped their breasts or buttocks or genitals, or kissed or attempted to kiss them, in a nightclub in Los Angeles in 2005; at a restaurant in New York in 2006; at a restaurant in the Atlanta area in 2011; in a nightclub in San Francisco in 2016; and at a restaurant in Malibu in 2016.

Assistant District Attorney Jenna Long argued in the court filing that prosecutors should be allowed to present such testimony to "refute" what Gooding's defense lawyers have said publicly – that such conduct is not criminal and was simply misunderstood "commonplace gestures."

"Looking at the defendant's repeated interactions with women, his purpose and intent is clear," Long said in the filing. "Touching a woman with the intent to gratify one's self sexually or to degrade her is not innocent or commonplace behavior."