Novel defense! Cuba Gooding Jr.‘s defense team asked a judge on Thursday to let them grill his alleged sexual assault victim about her preference for threesomes, and her small breasts.
“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. The 30-year-old accused the Men of Honor star of squeezing her breast at the Moxy Hotel in Times Square, in 2019. Gooding has denied the allegations.
Assistant DA Jenna Long argued that the questions would be barred via the rape shield law, adding that the line of questioning is “simply offensive,” but Toumbekis argued that it is a “philosophical” decision and “has nothing to do with her sexual history.”
The judge wanted more information before determining if the line of questioning would be relevant.
“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 makes her “misperceive” what she says Gooding did.
The judge was not convinced. “I don’t see how you connect A to B,” Judge Curtis Farber told him. “I’m now giving you an order not to do it.”
As Gooding and his team left the courthouse, a reporter asked, “Are women with small breasts delusional as your lawyer argues?” Gooding removed his face mask, revealing a white “Black Lives Matter” sign on the inside, but didn’t say anything.
22 women have accused Gooding of misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty to six sex abuse charges. The next hearing is set for September 1.