Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Legal Fate Is Finally Clear
The following article includes allegations of sexual assault and rape.
In case you're wondering where Cuba Gooding Jr. has been lately, the answer is not good. The "The People v. O.J. Simpson" star's latest courtroom dramas have been real and personal, rather than fictional. For the last four years, Gooding has been denying accusations of sexual misconduct from at least 30 women.
In June 2019, a 29-year-old woman accused Gooding of groping her while he was intoxicated at a Times Square bar, per ABC News. The incident was allegedly caught on security surveillance camera, shared by TMZ. The report empowered another woman to come forward about an incident with Gooding from 2008, per The Daily Beast, though a five-year statute of limitations in New York likely meant no charges against Gooding for that offense. But these reports led to allegations from other women, with CNN reporting accusations from a total of 30 women in August 2020. The award-winning "Jerry Maguire" actor faced charges of three counts of forcible touching and three counts of sex abuse over three different incidents between 2018 and 2019, all of which he denied.
Even worse, Gooding faces a separate civil lawsuit accusing him of raping a woman twice in 2013, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He allegedly convinced the woman to accompany him to his hotel room so he could change his clothes, but then he attacked her, ignoring her "no" pleas. Though that case is still pending, we now know the outcome of his current misdemeanor trial.
Cuba Gooding Jr. will not serve any jail time for the misdemeanors
Though Cuba Gooding Jr. had continually denied the six misdemeanor charges, Gooding changed his tune in April 2022, per AP. He took a deal in which he pleaded guilty to only one of the charges, and publicly apologized to the two other women "for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched."
In the deal, Gooding exchanged jail time for six months of alcohol and behavior modification counseling, after which he could downgrade his plea to a lesser violation of harassment. On October 13, he did just that, as the Manhattan District Attorney's office told CNN that Gooding had upheld his part of the deal, and thus was charged with time served, but will not face any jail time. As a result, the harassment violation will go on his record, but the criminal charges won't. DA Coleen Balbert said that Gooding had been undergoing counseling since September 2019, and was going to continue his treatment, per The Daily Beast.
Gooding's first accuser, later identified as Kelsey Harbert, wasn't happy with the outcome. "At what point are we going to take this seriously? When will we decide that this is dangerous behavior? And when is it the court's responsibility to protect the public from someone like him?," she said in a statement with her attorney, Gloria Allred, at her side. "The system is supposed to be about what he did, not who he is." Perhaps a different outcome will come from the remaining civil lawsuit against Gooding, which Allred is also prosecuting.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).