Cuba Gooding Jr. has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 to a woman he was accused of groping at a Manhattan bar in a lawsuit the disgraced “Jerry Maguire” actor completely ignored.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Latin ruled in Kelsey Harbert’s favor in the case in August after hearing extensive testimony about the June 9, 2019, incident at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar at The Moxy Hotel in Times Square. The county clerk finalized the judgment on Wednesday, totaling $329,750 in damages and including $200,000 in punitive damages.
In comments to the Daily News, Harbert, who sued Gooding for sexual battery and assault under the Adult Survivors Act in November 2023, on Thursday said the outcome “restored some of my hope in the system after six years of an uphill battle.”
“It felt validating especially after the criminal case ended in such a disappointing plea deal,” Harbert said.
Gooding could not be reached for comment and did not have a lawyer representing him in the suit he ignored after it was served on him in May 2024.
After surveillance footage went viral showing Gooding appearing to reach for Harbert’s breast after putting his hand on her thigh, the actor was criminally charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in 2019 in a sex crimes case ultimately alleging he groped and kissed Harbert and two other women without their consent.
In a plea deal reached with DA Alvin Bragg’s office, Gooding was permitted to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of forcible touching in April 2022 for kissing a waitress without her consent at LAVO restaurant on W. 28th St and Sixth Ave. in 2018.
The deal required him to apologize on the record to Harbert and another woman who had accused him of pinching her buttocks at TAO restaurant in lower Manhattan, but not to plead guilty to related charges. He did not serve any jail time and was later permitted to withdraw his misdemeanor plea and plead down to a harassment violation — thus wiping his criminal record — in exchange for going to therapy.
“I apologize for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched, anyone,” Gooding said at the 2022 hearing. “I am a celebrity figure. I come into contact with people. I never want to them to feel slighted or uncomfortable in any way.”
As Harbert read a victim impact statement at the same proceeding, the actor’s lawyer in his criminal case, Frank Rothman, claimed her account was a “product of her imagination,” comments the presiding judge said were inappropriate.
Harbert had also taken issue with Bragg meeting with the actor’s lawyers, accusing the DA of giving an ear to the actor’s team because he was famous. The News reached out to the DA’s office for a response to Harbert’s comments on Thursday.
Gooding has also faced allegations of rape and sexual assault by more than a dozen other women, which he has denied. He settled with one of his accusers, who had alleged he raped her at a Greenwich Village bar in 2013, for an unknown sum minutes after the case was set to go on trial in Manhattan Federal Court in June 2023.
One of Harbert’s attorneys, Margaret Gandy, a former federal prosecutor who was on the team that secured the rapper R Kelly’s 2021 conviction, on Thursday said Latin’s decision to award significant punitive damages reflected the impact of her testimony before him this summer.
“She has been steadfast in trying to seek accountability and the judge’s order and the judgement that followed are really a sign of justice,” Gandy said.
