Names and faces
■ Amanda Knox, a former American exchange student who became the focus of a sensational murder case, arrived in Italy on 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. turned himself in to police Thursday and was charged with forcible touching after a woman accused the actor of groping her at a New York City night spot. The 51-year-old Oscar-winning star of Jerry Maguire denies the allegations, and his lawyer said he will plead innocent to the misdemeanor charge. Gooding smiled and waved as he walked into the police station, where he was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. Gooding’s lawyer, Mark Heller, said security video from Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge showed “not the slightest scintilla of inappropriate conduct” on his part and will exonerate him. “Mr. Gooding has not acted inappropriately in any shape or form,” Heller told reporters after the arrest. A 29-year-old woman told police that Gooding grabbed her breast while he was intoxicated about 11:15 p.m. Sunday. The Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately comment. Gooding told TMZ that 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.