• Amanda Knox, a former American exchange student who became the focus of a sensational murder case, arrived in Italy Thursday for the first time since an appeals court acquitted her in 2011 in the slaying of her British roommate. Knox, 31, arrived at Milan's Linate airport en route to the northern city of Modena, where she is scheduled to participate Saturday at the Criminal Justice Festival's "Trial by Media" discussion panel in Modena. Accompanied by her mother and fiance, and escorted by plainclothes officers, she kept her eyes down as she left the airport and did not respond to reporters' questions. The killing of Knox's roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in the town of Perugia on Nov. 1, 2007, attracted global attention, especially after suspicion fell on the photogenic Knox, and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox's October 2011 acquittal -- after a lower court conviction that brought a 26-year prison sentence -- was one step in the long legal process that saw multiple flip-flop rulings before she and Sollecito were acquitted in 2015 by Italy's highest court. In all, Knox spent four years in jail before her 2011 acquittal freed her to return to her native Seattle. An Ivorian immigrant, Rudy Guede, is serving a 16-year murder sentence for Kercher's slaying. In a Wednesday Medium post titled "Your content, my life," Knox recalls feeling violated by the highly public nature of her trial. "While on trial for a murder I didn't commit, my prosecutor painted me as a sex-crazed femme fatale, and the media profited for years by sensationalizing an already sensational and utterly unjustified story," she wrote. "It's on us to stop making and stop consuming such irresponsible media."
• Cuba Gooding Jr.'s lawyer said Thursday security video will exonerate the actor from allegations he groped a woman at a New York City night spot. Gooding, 51, smiled and waved when he turned himself in Thursday to investigators in the New York Police Department's special victims division. His attorney, Mark Heller, said in an interview that security video from Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in Manhattan showed no criminality on Gooding's part. "There is not the slightest scintilla of inappropriate conduct on his part," Heller said. A 29-year-old woman told police the Oscar-winning Jerry Maguire star grabbed her breast while he was intoxicated around 11:15 p.m. Sunday. Gooding denies the allegations. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined comment. As for Sunday night, Gooding, a Bronx native, told TMZ he was at Magic Hour partying with friends but didn't touch anyone. He said there's a video that shows "what really happened." "I trust the system and will let the process speak for itself," Gooding said.
A Section on 06/14/2019