Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. Cops Plea Deal in NYC Sexual Misconduct Case
2 min read
AP
On Wednesday, Cuba Gooding Jr. admitted to aggressively grabbing a woman in a Manhattan nightclub in 2018.
The actor, who was facing six misdemeanor charges for three different alleged instances. He pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching on Wednesday. This fee is for a case from 2019 in which a girl claimed Gooding kissed her without her consent at New York City’s LAVO nightclub.
Gooding was accused of sexually assaulting three different women in Manhattan nightclubs between 2018 and 2019. He pleaded guilty to only one of the charges. He stated he “kissed a waitress on the lips” without her consent at the LAVO New York nightclub.
Cuba Gooding Jr. also admitted to having extramarital affairs with two additional women and apologized for “ever making anyone feel inappropriately touched.”
Gooding Jr was also charged in two other cases
Cuba Gooding Jr was charged in two other cases a few months later after more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. Gooding allegedly grabbed a server’s buttocks after making a sexually provocative remark to her at TAO Downtown. He physically touched a woman improperly at LAVO nightclub in 2018, according to the latest allegations.
He had previously rejected all charges of wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts.
| CREDIT: JOHN LAMPARSKI/GETTY IMAGES
His lawyers have suggested that overzealous prosecutors, swept up in the #MeToo frenzy, are attempting to criminalize “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings.
If the Gooding case had gone to trial, the court had ordered that prosecutors may have called two more women. They testified about their claims that Gooding had allegedly raped them. Those women were among 19 other accusers prosecutors wanted to summon as witnesses. Despite the fact that their claims had not resulted in criminal charges.
Ankita Khanrah
Ankita Khanrah is a second-year student of the Master of Communication and Journalism (Integrated) programme at the School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed University, Bhubaneswar.
