Academy-Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. will serve no time in prison after agreeing to a plea deal in his sex abuse case involving allegations from multiple women.
The 54-year-old actor entered a guilty plea in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, where he was sentenced to time served, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
In April, Gooding pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching following allegations from three different women claiming he touched them inappropriately in New York City restaurants and nightclubs in 2018 and 2019, The Daily Wire previously reported.
Part of the plea deal from earlier this year required the “Jerry Maguire” star to continue the counseling for behavioral and alcohol issues he started in 2019, per the Associated Press. After going six months with no arrests, Gooding completed the terms of the agreement, and his misdemeanor plea was reduced to a lesser violation of harassment on Thursday.
Breaking News: Cuba Gooding Jr. got no prison time after pleading guilty to one charge in a sex abuse case. Nineteen other women came forward with similar accounts of abuse after his arrest. Two civil suits are still pending. https://t.co/hYdqC5Sc5E
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 13, 2022
The plea came about three years after Gooding was arrested following several delays as his attorney tried to get the charges against him reduced or dismissed, the Associated Press reported.
Gooding reportedly told the judge that he “kissed the waitress on her lips” without consent at the LAVO New York nightclub, Yahoo.com noted.
It was only the LAVO nightclub accusation to which the “Men Of Honor” star ended up pleading guilty. Gooding previously pleaded not guilty to six other misdemeanor charges and had denied all other accusations. The actor’s attorneys argued that the allegations were trying to turn “commonplace” or misunderstood gestures into crimes.
A total of 20 women reportedly came forward to accuse the actor of groping or forcibly kissing them in allegations dating back two decades. Gooding became one of the many prominent faces accused during the #MeToo movement, The New York Times noted.
Despite the actor’s criminal troubles now being over in Manhattan, Gooding still faces two civil suits accusing him of abuse, the NYT noted.
RELATED: Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Guilty To Forcible Touching Following Multiple Allegations
