Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Guilty to Forcible Touching
Cuba Gooding Jr. has pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching in a criminal case that accused him of violating three different women at Manhattan nightclubs in 2018 and 2019, according to the Associated Press.
Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after an incident at a Manhattan club. He was later released and the trial was delayed several times. Per Variety, “A 29-year-old woman told police that Gooding squeezed her breast without her consent at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge. After that incident, two more women came forward with accusations of inappropriate touching. One woman, who was a server at TAO Downtown, alleged that Gooding pinched her buttocks at the nightclub in 2018. Another woman claimed that Gooding forcibly touched her inappropriately at the LAVO New York nightclub in 2018.”
Gooding pleaded guilty to the LAVO nightclub allegation and previously pleaded not guilty to six other misdemeanor charges and had denied all other accusations, the outlet reports.
In August of 2020, Gooding was also accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in 2013. The woman alleged Gooding raped her in a New York City hotel room. He denied the accusations, according to Variety.
In total, 20 women have come forward to accuse Gooding of groping or forcibly kissing them in incidents dating back two decades, according to the AP.
