Cuba Gooding Jr. will face no jail time in forcible touching case
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David Dee Delgado/Getty Images Cuba Gooding Jr. in court
Cuba Gooding Jr. has resolved his forcible touching case in New York City and will not serve any jail time after following the conditions of the plea deal he reached in April.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutor Coleen Balbert said in court Thursday that the Oscar-winning actor, 54, had remained out of trouble and completed six months of alcohol and behavior modification counseling (which he had already been doing since the case started in 2019), thereby allowing him to withdraw his misdemeanor plea and plead guilty to a harassment violation.
Gooding previously pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of forcibly kissing a waitress at a New York nightclub in 2018. By pleading guilty to a lesser charge Thursday, he will avoid having a criminal record from this case. If Gooding had not complied with the terms of the plea deal, he could have faced up to a year in jail.
"Mr. Gooding's case with satisfactorily concluded with no criminal record and no criminal conviction," his representative Peter Toumbekis said in a statement to EW. "I hope and trust everyone can now move forward."
Since 2019, more than 20 women across the country have accused Gooding of various instances of sexual harassment or assault, but the case resolved Thursday was the only ongoing criminal case. An anonymous woman filed a civil lawsuit in August 2020 alleging that Gooding raped her in a New York hotel room in 2013, which Gooding and his lawyers have denied.
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