The 54-year-old is accused of violating three different women in various nightclubs in Manhattan in 2018 and 2019, but his guilty plea covers only one of the allegations. It comes almost three years after the actor was arrested for the case that was delayed several times as his lawyers tried to reduce or dismiss the charges. Gooding now admitted to a judge that he “kissed the waitress on her lips” without his consent at the LAVO nightclub. The actor’s agreement does not require imprisonment. He can also withdraw the misdemeanor complaint and plead guilty to less harassment if he continues to advise for six months. Gooding was arrested and pleaded not guilty in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he had her chest tightened without her consent at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge near Times Square. A few months later, he was charged in two additional cases, when more women showed up to accuse him of abuse. The new allegations claim that he bit the buttocks of a waitress after he made a sexually suggestive comment to her at TAO Downtown and violently touched a woman at the LAVO nightclub, both in 2018. Gooding had previously pleaded not guilty to six counts of misdemeanor charges and denied any wrongdoing. Picture: The actor was in the backyard at a basketball game in Miami in March His lawyers argued that prosecutors were trapped in the heat of the #MeToo movement and were trying to turn “common gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes. The judge had ruled that if his case led to a trial, prosecutors could call two additional women to testify about their allegations that the actor also violated them. These women, whose claims did not result in criminal charges, were among 19 other prosecutors whom prosecutors tried to call as witnesses. Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused of raping a woman in New York in 2013. After a judge ruled in absentia in July that Gooding had not responded to the lawsuit, the actor hired a lawyer to fight the allegations. Gooding won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jerry Maguire in 1996.
