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Cuba Gooding Jr. has been seen for the first time since pleading guilty to one count of forcible touching as he spoke to a friend in a hotel in New York City on Tuesday.
The criminal case accused the Oscar-winning star of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019.
The actor, 54, cut a casual figure on the outing as he sported a blue denim jacket wich he wore over a black hoodie.
Outing: Cuba Gooding Jr. has been seen for the first time since pleading guilty to one count of forcible touching as he spoke to a friend in a hotel in New York City on Tuesday
The film star also wore a pair of camo trousers on the low-key outing.
It comes after an attorney representing an alleged sexual assault victim of the actor said she will proceed with an ongoing $6million civil lawsuit because ‘justice was not achieved’ when Gooding Jr. got a no-jail plea deal in a separate criminal case.
Famed women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, 80, issued a statement decrying a New York State Supreme Court judge’s decision not to allow 19 alleged victims, two of whom she represented, to testify against Gooding Jr. during pre-trial hearings for admissibility of evidence.
‘Unfortunately, however, the judge refused to allow the testimony of any of the Molineux witnesses, which the prosecutor wanted to be able to call as witnesses if this case went to trial. That was a significant setback for the prosecution,’ Allred said, according to Deadline.
Low-key: The actor, 54, cut a casual figure on the outing as he sported a blue denim jacket wich he wore over a black hoodie
The actor, whose net worth is approximately $12million, pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching of a 29-year-old victim, and entered a no-jail plea deal.
He also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019.
The self-proclaimed feminist lawyer said that her client, a Jane Doe who accused Gooding Jr. of raping her at a hotel room in SoHo in 2013, will proceed with a pending $6million civil lawsuit filed in 2020.
‘Justice was significantly delayed in this case for many reasons, and I do not feel that justice was achieved today with the entry of this plea, although I do understand why under the circumstances that the prosecution offered a plea,’ the statement added.
‘My law firm … will continue to litigate our civil case against Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Federal court in New York on behalf of our brave client.’
Allred, who has handled numerous high-profile cases and represented Jeffrey Epstein’s and Bill Cosby’s victims, said she hopes the civil case yields a just result after criminal proceedings against the Hollywood star proved to be unsatisfactory.
Statement: Famed women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, 80, issued a statement decrying a New York State Supreme Court judge’s decision not to allow 19 alleged victims to testify against Gooding Jr, during pre-trial hearings for admissibility of evidence
Case: Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday, April 13, 2022, to one count of forcible touching in a protracted criminal case accusing the Oscar-winning star of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019
Arrest: The single guilty plea came nearly three years after Gooding’s arrest in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed
Lawsuit: The self-proclaimed feminist lawyer said that her client, a Jane Doe who accused Gooding of raping her at a hotel room in SoHo in 2013, will proceed with a pending $6million civil lawsuit filed in 2020
Gooding Jr. admitted to violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019.
The single guilty plea came nearly three years after Gooding Jr.’s arrest in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed.
The actor also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019.
He must continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment he started in 2019 for six more months and have no new arrests.
‘I apologize for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched,’ he said in court, according to The New York Times.
Allred has represented at least three of the 19 women who were willing to testify against Gooding Jr. during pre-trial hearings for the criminal case.
Case: Gooding also admitted to subjecting two other women to non-consensual physical contact in October 2018 and June 2019
One of her clients, known in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Doe, filed the $6million civil lawsuit against Gooding Jr. in August 2020, Reuters reported. Doe said she was raped twice in August 2013 at a hotel room in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, soon after she met the actor in a Greenwich Village restaurant and lounge.
In January, Gooding Jr. asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss the civil lawsuit, saying she took too long to sue by waiting nearly seven years.
Gooding’s lawyers said laws allowing rape accusers to sue their alleged perpetrators after many years applied to victims who had suppressed traumatic rapes or did not initially realize they had been raped, and did not apply to Doe.
They said letting Doe invoke the seven-year statute of limitations under a New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence violated Gooding’s due process rights under the U.S. and New York state constitutions.
‘No exceptional circumstances forced her to wait,’ Gooding’s lawyers said in January. ‘Plaintiff choosing to sue Mr. Gooding, Jr almost seven years later will not rectify any serious injustice; the opposite is true.’
Accusations: Gooding Jr was also accused of pinching a server’s buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown in 2018. The TAO victim won a default judgment against Gooding last year after he failed to respond to her lawsuit for over a year. The judgment will allow the victim to seek monetary damages
Doe’s lawyers argued the seven-year statute of limitations applies in this case, and have also rejected a defense request that their client reveal her name, saying the case involved ‘matters of a highly sensitive and personal nature.’
The criminal case has been scheduled to go to trial at least twice, with an April 2020 trial date scuttled as coronavirus cases surged in New York and the state shut down most court matters due to the pandemic.
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 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 New York nightclub, both in 2018.
Surveillance footage emerged in 2019 of one of the alleged groping incidents. The video does not show him clearly grabbing her buttocks but it does show him reaching out toward her back and rear.
The TAO victim won a default judgment against Gooding last year after he failed to respond to her lawsuit for over a year. The judgment will allow the victim to seek monetary damages.
Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to the LAVO nightclub allegation. He had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Behaviour: The actor avoids jail time as part of the plea but must continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment he began in 2019 for six more months and have no new arrests
He said in court: ‘I apologize for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched’
Denial: Gooding 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.
This reared its head during one of the victim impact statements, in which Gooding’s defense attorney called one of the victims ‘delusional’ and frequently interrupted her, according to the New York Daily News.
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.
