Cuba Gooding Jr. Settles Rape Lawsuit Minutes Before Trial Was Set To Begin

Cuba Gooding Jr. settled on a lawsuit that accused him of rape on Tuesday.

The jury was supposed to convene on Tuesday at 10 a.m. and at 10:24 am a note was passed onto jurors that the matter had been resolved. The details of the settlement agreement have not been released yet. 

Gooding was accused of raping a woman twice on August 24, 2013, in New York City at the Mercer Hotel. The two met at a restaurant in the city, Le Souk Lounge, and then Gooding allegedly convinced her to come up to his room so that he could change his clothes. Once there, the two took shots together and then he allegedly groped her and raped her twice.

The woman was seeking $6 million in damages. 

Gooding had insisted that he was innocent and that the encounters were consensual, but he still decided to settle. 

There were supposed to be seven other witnesses, not including the accuser and Gooding, who were expected to testify in court. Three women that were supposed to testify had been abused by Gooding previously. 

The name of the woman has not been released, and it was going to come out in court, but because of the settlement, it remains unknown.

She filed charges back in 2020 and did not reveal her identity and was known as Jane Doe to the jurors. Judge Paul Crotty advised her to reveal her name to the jurors, as he believed that they may make a decision in favor of Gooding if they didn’t know who she was. She may have believed that Gooding was going to settle because she did not refile the charges with her name. 

Gooding had a similar situation occur to him last year when he also took a plea deal that included no jail time. He was accused of groping three women in New York City during three different incidents. He was allowed to drop his guilty plea and his criminal record was cleared due to the deal, which included six months of counseling and staying sober for six months. 

He has been accused by 30 different women, all in separate incidents, of sexual misconduct, which includes kissing, groping, and other behavior that was inappropriate. 

Gooding has starred in several films, including Boyz N the Hood, Jerry Maguire, American Gangster and As Good As It Gets. He has been nominated for 42 different awards and has won 17 of those.