Cuba Gooding Jr. spoke out for the first time publicly abouta woman’s claims that he groped herat a Manhattan nightclub — revealing he plans to turn himself over to the NYPD and insisting he is “absolutely not” guilty.
“I trust the system,” the 51-year-oldtold TMZin Los Angeles on Tuesday night. “There’s a tape that shows what really happened — that’s the most important thing.”
When pushed about “what really happened,” he responded:
“I was at the club, I left. I met a bunch of people, I said hello, I took pictures and … you know, you have to have faith in what people are saying … now I’m giving the process the chance to show what happened, what went down.”
Gooding was accused of groping the 30-year-old woman around 9 p.m. Sunday while he was “highly intoxicated” inside Midtown’s Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge on Seventh Avenue, the woman claimed. She called 911 around 1 a.m. Monday.
Gooding also announced Tuesday he plans to turn himself in to police on Thursday.