Cuba Gooding Jr. won’t be spending any time behind bars for his Manhattan sex abuse case, and will even have his criminal record wiped clean after completing a sweetheart no-jail plea deal.
The New York Post reports that on Thursday, the 54-year-old Oscar winning actor’s six forcible touching charges were downgraded to second-degree harassment, which will be removed from his record thanks to the plea deal.
Gooding Jr. was accused of kissing a woman against her will at a nightclub back in 2018, and groping two other women at NYC hotspots in 2019. He plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of forcibly touching a woman at a New York nightclub that same year.
Cuba Gooding Jr’s Sex Abuse Case Stems From Kissing Woman Against Her Will At Nightclub In 2018
His record was cleared after completing six months of alcohol abuse treatment as well as behavior modification therapy, both of which were conditions of his April plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
In court on Thursday, prosecutor Coleen Balbert said she’s received “positive reports” from the actor’s therapist, while noting he planning to continue the treatment beyond the court-ordered six months required of him.
The victims, who were not publicly named, gave statements in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday and described the trauma those incidents have caused them., with one calling the plea deal a “misstep.”
Cuba’s Victims Gave Statements In Court Thursday, With One Calling Plea Deal A “Misstep”
“This plea deal feels like a misstep,” said one of the unnamed women, who alleged Gooding Jr. groped her breast at a rooftop bar. “It’s hard to describe the weight that comes from a situation like this. Your brain wants to make sense of what happens to you. What does a bad person look like? Why was I targeted?”
Another victim told the court that being groped by the actor had destroyed her sense of joy, according to the outlet.
“Before this whole ordeal I was different, I was happier and more outgoing and when I laughed it was from deep within my soul. My laughter was genuine much like my happiness was genuine,” she said in a statement read by the prosecutor. “That part of me is now gone.”
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. appears in New York Criminal Court for his sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of forcibly touching a woman at a New York nightclub in 2018. Photo by Mike Segar pic.twitter.com/M4suZYlBeF
— corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) October 13, 2022
One Victim “Appalled” By Encounter With Actor, Who Initially Faced Up To A Year In Jail
The third woman said she was “appalled” by her alleged encounter with the actor.
“Gooding Jr. reached over and pinched my butt. I was so appalled. I turned to him and said ‘don’t pinch my butt.’ He replied and said ‘Aww, that is no fun,’” she said in a video statement played in court.
Gooding Jr. remained stoic throughout the proceedings, even as victims read their impact statements, offering only a “no, sir” when Justice Curtis Farber asked if he wanted to speak, the Post reports.
He had initially faced up to a year in jail for the sex abuse charges.
