NEW YORK — Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to forcibly kissing a woman Wednesday as part of a no-jail plea deal — after his lawyer slammed one of the actor’s victims as delusional.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg personally weighed in on the plea agreement, according to Gooding’s lawyers. The deal required the “Jerry Maguire” actor to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of forcible touching and apologize to two victims.
Gooding, 54, has been accused of sexual assault committed over two decades by more than 20 women. Some have accused him of rape, including one woman who filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court in 2020.
“I apologize for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched, anyone,” Gooding said in court, his voice cracking. “I am a celebrity figure. I come into contact with people. I never want to them to feel slighted or uncomfortable in any way.”
The lone accuser in attendance, who was recognized as a victim as part of the plea, said in Manhattan Criminal Court that her world was shattered after she happened to meet Gooding at a Midtown club on Jun. 9, 2019. She was 29 and visiting the city to get set up for a neuroscience internship at NYU.
“I was immediately super excited. I recognized him from one of my favorite childhood films, ‘Snow Dogs,” the woman said.
“You can imagine my surprise when I saw a flash of movement and felt his hand on my breast, groping it, feeling around on it as if it was a piece of meat for dinner that night, and he wanted to make sure it was cooked well enough. I was mortified, and quite honestly, just frozen and shocked from that.”
Gooding’s lawyer Frank Rothman interrupted the woman and loudly whispered as she delivered her victim impact statement. She even asked Gooding and his lawyer to “please listen.”
Rothman later slammed the woman — despite his client having just apologized.
“What she said happened here for the last 20 minutes is a product of her imagination for the large part,” Rothman said. “That’s my statement as his lawyer. That’s not coming from (Gooding).”
“I don’t know that it was necessary to make,” Judge Curtis Farber responded.
Video of the incident inside the Magic Hour bar at the Moxy Hotel, which TMZ first published, showed Gooding appearing to reach for the woman’s chest after putting his hand on her thigh.
The woman said Rothman wasn’t the first of Gooding’s lawyers to leave her feeling humiliated. His former attorney, Mark Heller, unsuccessfully fought to cross examine her on whether she was insecure about having small breasts. Heller was recently disbarred.
Asked by the Daily News whether he had anything to say about his lawyer seemingly shaming the victim, Gooding waved his hands “no” as he left court.
As part of his guilty plea, Gooding admitted to forcibly kissing a woman at a Manhattan nightclub in September 2018. He admitted to subjecting two other women — including the one who spoke in court — to “non-consensual physical contact,” but did not formally plead guilty for those incidents.
If he isn’t rearrested in six months, the court will vacate his conviction and allow him to plead to a harassment violation.
Bragg ran on a promise to overhaul the DA’s scandal-plagued sex crimes unit and frequently criticized his predecessor Cy Vance on the campaign trail as going too easy on high-profile sex offenders. Bragg’s office did not address questions on why he met with Gooding’s lawyers.
Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert told the court the DA’s office had communicated closely with victims while negotiating the plea agreement, but the woman who spoke in court said she was “devastated” by the deal.
A neuroscience and law student, the victim noted that she had taken all the recommended steps after the groping incident, calling the NYPD to report it when bar security didn’t believe her.
“I think that it’s — with all due respect — a failure on our system to hold someone accountable for sexual assault,” she said.
“I feel very sad, and I feel very lost for what more I can do.”
———
