Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. faces no jail time in sexual misconduct case
Cuba Gooding Jr. will not serve any jail time in his sexual misconduct case.
Months after the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” actor, 54, pleaded guilty in April to one count of forcible touching, Manhattan Criminal Court prosecutor Coleen Balbert on Thursday said Gooding completed six months of alcohol and behavior-modification counseling. As a result, he was permitted to withdraw his misdemeanor plea and plead guilty to a harassment violation.
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching in a protracted criminal case that accuses him of violating three different women.
He faces no additional penalties and will not have a criminal record because he pleaded to a non-criminal violation.
Balbert also touted “positive reports for the last six months” from the actor’s therapist.
Gooding, who is also known for “Snow Dogs” and “American Crime Story,” was accused of violating three women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019. In June 2019, the actor was arrested after a woman told police that he inappropriately touched her without her consent at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square. Months following his arrest, more women came forward accusing the actor of abuse.
A new lawsuit says actor Cuba Gooding Jr. raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
At least 12 women alleged misconduct, including forcible touching without their consent, at restaurants and clubs across the country. The allegations date from 2001 to 2018. He pleaded guilty in April to the forcible-touching charge in which a woman said the actor inappropriately touched her at the Lavo New York nightclub in 2018.
Gooding’s case was delayed several times as his lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed. The actor was set to go to trial at least twice, with an April 2020 trial date scuttled as coronavirus cases surged in New York.
Throughout Gooding’s case, his legal representatives maintained that prosecutors, in the age of the #MeToo movement, were trying to turn “commonplace gestures” into crimes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
