Cuba Gooding Jr. pleads guilty to sex charges
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to resolve his forcible touching and sex assault case in Manhattan, where prosecutors accused the actor of groping three different women.
Until now, Gooding had denied the charges, all misdemeanors, and the defense contended Gooding was unfairly tarnished in the fervor of the #MeToo era.
Gooding pleaded guilty to forcible touching, a class A misdemeanor, the top count he faced and also admitted to two other incidents of non-consensual contact in October 2018 and June 2019.
Under the terms of the plea, Gooding has to continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment that he started in 2019 for six months and have no new arrests. After that, he can plead to harassment.
Gooding, 54, was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman said he squeezed her breast at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in Times Square.
Prosecutors added other charges after two other women came forward and accused him of abuse, including a server at TAO Downtown and another woman at the nightclub LAVO.
Prosecutors had wanted to call two additional women to testify about their encounters with Gooding even though their accounts did not form the basis of the criminal charges.
