Cuba Gooding Jr. settles civil sexual abuse case

Cuba Gooding Jr. has settled a lawsuit with an unnamed woman who accused him of raping her in a New York City hotel room in 2013.

The actor has denied the allegation and insists his interactions with the woman were consensual.

However, the 55-year-old Oscar winner has been accused of groping and unwanted touching by dozens of women.

The terms of the settlement reached as jury selection was about to begin in a federal civil trial that was expected to include damaging testimony against him has not been disclosed.

Filed in 2020 on behalf of a woman identified only as Jane Doe. The plaintiff sought $6 million in damages.

She alleged that, in the summer of 2013, Mr Gooding had introduced himself to her at a local restaurant and invited her to drinks at The Mercer Hotel in Soho, where he was staying.

At the hotel, she claimed, the actor told her he needed to change clothes, invited her up to his fifth-floor room and began to undress.

The woman said she had tried to leave but that Mr Gooding blocked her path, pushed her onto the bed, “wouldn’t stop” touching her, “aggressively removed” her underwear and penetrated her twice.

A lawyer representing the defendant at the time called the allegations “completely false and defamatory”.

The presiding judge ruled last week that he would allow testimony from three of Mr Gooding’s other accusers because they were “sufficiently similar” to the plaintiff’s allegation.

 

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