As first reported by Willamette Week, Portland police investigated a 2011 incident in which a woman said Mark Cuban groped her while posing for a photo at a bar. Yesterday, a person working at the bar that night said while he couldn’t confirm the specifics, he did remember the woman recoiling from and arguing with Cuban after the photo.
Cuban was at the Barrel Room in April 2011 when the woman asked to take a photo with him. She described what happened next to a Portland PD detective, who wrote a summary: “He then moved his hand down until it was on her buttocks. Cuban then pushed his hand down the back of her jeans and inside her underwear where he cupped his hand over her groin area and inserted the tip of his finger into her vagina.”
Charges were never filed, and Cuban denied doing it. Last night, the Oregonian published an account from Christopher White, a security worker who witnessed the photo-op from 20 feet away. White said he didn’t have a clear view but could tell something happened when the two posed:
“She jumped away like she was not happy with him,” White, 33, said in an interview Wednesday with The Oregonian/OregonLive. “That’s when the energy in the room kind of exploded.”
White said Cuban acted very drunk, slurring his words and “gesticulating wildly” to the point that the bar staff cut him off. He told the Oregonian that several security staff members were tasked with following Cuban’s crew around and keeping him in line. “He was, like, really kind of gropey toward them,” White said. “It just wasn’t how you’d normally pose in a picture with someone.” The woman also strongly reacted after the photo:
The woman looked upset and began to raise her voice and point angrily at Cuban, White said. Security guards moved quickly to separate the woman and other club patrons from the celebrity, he said.
Cuban’s attorneys sent a statement to the Oregonian, once again denying everything:
This former employee of the bar who is coming forward today, seven years later, says he was watching Mr. Cuban at the critical moment when the photographs were being taken and Mr. Cuban did not put his hand in the complainant’s pants.
This former employee’s claims about Mr. Cuban’s interactions with other patrons and employees are directly refuted by all the witnesses who were interviewed by the police. Once again, this did not happen.”