Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is facing the beginning of a civil trial alleging he raped a woman in a New York City hotel nearly a decade ago, an encounter that he contends was consensual.
The trial, scheduled to begin Tuesday with jury selection, confronts the “Jerry Maguire” star with allegations he met the plaintiff – who is seeking $6 million in damages – in a New York City restaurant, persuaded her to join him at his hotel and convinced her to stop at his room to change clothing.
The woman, who has proceeded anonymously but has been told she must reveal her name at trial, said in her lawsuit that Gooding raped her in his room. His lawyers, though, insist that it was consensual sex and that she bragged afterward to others that she had sex with a celebrity.
The actor is accused of rape in a lawsuit, with court proceedings for the trial kicking off in June. In court papers, lawyers for the woman have said she is entitled to $2 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages for the “significant emotional distress” she suffered after meeting Gooding.
The introduction to accuser Jane Doe occurred in August 2013 when she met the actor in the VIP lounge of a restaurant in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan and agreed to join him with a friend of hers at a nearby hotel bar, according to court papers.
But, once at the hotel, and before her friend arrived, Jane Doe was encouraged to proceed to Gooding’s hotel room so the actor could change his clothing and they could return downstairs to meet her friend, the court papers said.
The lawsuit alleged Gooding got violent in the room, pushing the woman onto the bed and forcibly raping her while ignoring her pleas for him to stop.
Prior to the trial, Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled that he will let three women testify during Gooding’s trial.
The women are expected to say on the stand that they also were subjected to sudden sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults after meeting Gooding in social settings such as festivals, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Authorities say Gooding has been accused of committing sexual misconduct against more than 30 other women, including groping, unwanted kissing and other inappropriate behavior.
One of the women planning to testify at the trial is Kelsey Harbert, who told police Gooding fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square in 2019.
Harbert said last year after Gooding pleaded guilty in New York state court to a charge that spared him from jail or a criminal history that never getting her day in court was “more disappointing than words can say.”
The actor and his legal team has denied all accusations of rape, saying that the two had consensual sex in his hotel room.
In February, Gooding’s lawyer said the defense at trial would push against the plaintiff’s allegations by relying in part on testimony by two former owners of the restaurant where she met Gooding who will say she returned late that evening to boast that she’d had sex with a celebrity.
Outside court, Becker and another defense attorney, Edward Vincent Sapone, said that a third witness, a former female bartender at the restaurant, could also testify about the woman’s return to the restaurant and what she said.
The Oscar-winning actor plead guilty in April 2022 to a misdemeanor, admitting he forcibly kissed a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018.
The guilty plea allowed Gooding to escape jail time after courts said he complied with the terms of a conditional agreement that saw him plead to charges involving just one of what prosecutors have said were allegations from at least 30 women, many at New York City nightspots.
By staying out of trouble and completing six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, Gooding was permitted to withdraw his guilty plea and plead guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation, eliminating his criminal record and preventing further penalties.
Gooding was arrested in 2019 among a profusion of Hollywood heavyweights accused of wrongdoing during the #MeToo movement.
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