NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty on Wednesday to forcibly touching a woman at a Manhattan nightclub in 2018.
The guilty misdemeanor plea came nearly three years after the Oscar-winning "Jerry Maguire" actor's arrest in the case that saw several delays as the 54-year-old's lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed. A trial date had been repeatedly stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gooding accused of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019, pleaded guilty to just one of the allegations, saying he "kissed a waitress on her lips" without consent at the LAVO New York nightclub.
He also admitted to non-consensual contact with two other women and apologized "for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched."
His plea deal calls for no jail time. If he continues counseling for six months, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and plead guilty to a lesser violation of harassment.
Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he squeezed her breast without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square.
A few months later, he was charged in two additional cases as more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. The new charges alleged he pinched a server’s buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forcibly touched a woman inappropriately at the LAVO nightclub, both in 2018.
He had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes.
The judge had ruled that if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Those women, whose claims did not result in criminal charges, were among 19 other accusers whom prosecutors were seeking to call as witnesses.
An October 2019 district attorney’s office filing alleged his "prior acts demonstrate that his contacts with their intimate parts are intentional, not accidental, and that he is not mistaken about their lack of consent."
Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013. After a judge issued a default judgment in July because Gooding hadn’t responded to the lawsuit, the actor retained a lawyer and is fighting the allegations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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