Mark Cuban was not charged with sexual assault after an accusation was made against him at a nightclub in 2011, and witness accounts were one of the reasons the case was never pursued. Had police spoken with Christopher White, you have to wonder if things would have gone a bit different.
White used to work at the Barrel Room, which is the Portland nightclub where a woman says Cuban slid his hand under her jeans and penetrated her vagina while the two were posing for a photo together. In an interview with The Oregonian on Wednesday, White said he saw the alleged victim react in a startled manner while the photo was being taken.
“She jumped away like she was not happy with him,” White said, noting that he was standing about 20 feet from Cuban and the woman. “That’s when the energy in the room kind of exploded. … She definitely jumped after he had put his arm around her.”
A report published by Williamette Week on Tuesday reviewed 50 pages of police records related to the incident, and the police report stated that the woman submitted seven photos of her and Cuban as evidence to support her claim. The detective in charge of the investigation described two of the photos as “significant” and said they show Cuban’s shoulder lowered in a manner that would indicate he was reaching toward the woman’s buttocks. White indicated he saw something similar.
“I didn’t have a camera on his hand,” he said. “But it sure looked like it was too low to be just on her back.”
White, who was a security worker at the nightclub, said Cuban appeared extremely intoxicated and was slurring his words when he arrived. He said he recalls Cuban being upset after he was told he would not be served any alcohol. He also said the Mavericks owner would gesture toward women he wanted to take photographs with, and White felt the way Cuban was touching some of them was inappropriate.
“He was, like, really kind of gropey toward them,” he added. “It just wasn’t how you’d normally pose in a picture with someone.”
None of the employees from the Barrel Room on the night of the incident told police they saw Cuban do anything wrong, but White was never interviewed. A friend confirmed that White told him the same story he told The Oregonian back in 2011 after the alleged assault took place.
Cuban reportedly passed a lie detector test related to the incident, but the fact that he was heavily intoxicated and admitted to police he had been drinking does him no favors.
