Cuba Gooding Jr. Skips Trial After Settling Sexual Assault Lawsuit In Private

Cuba Gooding Jr. is no longer headed to trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman 10 years ago after resolving the case privately.

On Tuesday, a calendar entry in the New York federal court announced Gooding’s trial on sex abuse allegations was “OFF,” after both parties settled the matter, AP News reports. The Academy Award-winning actor is accused of meeting a woman in Manhattan and persuading her to go to his hotel room so he could change clothes.

The alleged victim says while inside the hotel room, Gooding sexually assaulted her. But, the “Jerry Maguire” star remains adamant that the sex was consensual and claimed the woman even bragged about hooking up with a celebrity afterward.

The woman was able to move forward with the lawsuit anonymously up until last week when Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled that her name would be revealed at trial. The woman was seeking $6 million in damages and was being represented by famed women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred.

However, all parties have remained silent in the wake of the suit being settled. Authorities were going after Gooding for his past accounts of sexual misconduct with at least 30 other women who accuse him of groping, unwanted kisses, and acting inappropriately, NPR reports.

The judge agreed to allow three alleged victims to speak at trial and share their accounts of being assaulted by Gooding. Kelsey Harbert was among the three selected to share her story of allegedly being fondled by the “Boyz N The Hood” star at a bar near Times Square in 2019.

The settled lawsuit comes one year after Gooding was permitted to plead guilty in April 2022 to a misdemeanor for forcibly kissing a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018. Under the deal, Gooding would have to stay out of trouble and complete six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling in order to withdraw his guilty plea and plead guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation that would eliminate his criminal record and prevent further penalties.