Cuba Gooding Jr. accusers can testify at intercourse assault trial, decide guidelines

NEW YORK — Three ladies who declare Cuba Gooding Jr. sexually abused them — together with one upset she by no means obtained her day in courtroom when Gooding resolved felony expenses with out trial or jail — can testify at a federal civil trial subsequent week to assist a girl’s declare that the actor raped her in 2013, a decide dominated Friday.

Judge Paul A. Crotty stated the allegations by the ladies have been related for a jury deciding if the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star raped a girl in a Manhattan lodge room after they met at a bar. He additionally dominated in a separate order that the plaintiff, recognized solely as Jane Doe within the lawsuit looking for $6 million in damages, should reveal her identify at trial.

He stated the claims by the three ladies who can testify “are sufficiently similar” to the claims at stake within the trial as a result of “all involve sudden sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults” linked to Gooding and stemmed from the presence of the ladies and Gooding in social settings similar to festivals, bars, nightclubs and eating places.

Lawyers for Gooding, a #MeToo defendant in a number of courts, have stated Gooding had consensual intercourse with the girl who accused him of rape after they met within the VIP lounge of a Greenwich Village restaurant and she or he joined him at a close-by lodge bar, agreeing to proceed to his lodge room so the actor may change his clothes. The attorneys didn’t reply to an electronic mail request for remark Friday.

The three ladies embody Kelsey Harbert, who stated in tears after Gooding pleaded responsible final yr that by no means getting her day in courtroom was “more disappointing than words can say.”

Harbert advised police Gooding fondled her with out her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge close to Times Square in 2019.

The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault except they grant permission, as Harbert has finished.

The decide disallowed the testimony of a fourth lady on the grounds that her proposed testimony that Gooding groped her breast with out her consent in 2011 was so much like Harbert’s anticipated testimony that it might be “needlessly cumulative” and would enhance the possibility of improper bias. The trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Gooding, a star in movies together with “Boyz n the Hood” and “Radio,” was permitted to plead responsible in April 2022 to a misdemeanor, admitting that he forcibly kissed a employee at a New York nightclub in 2018.

After staying out of bother and finishing six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, Gooding was permitted to withdraw his responsible plea and as a substitute pleaded responsible to a non-criminal harassment violation, eliminating his felony report and stopping additional penalties.

The deal was criticized by a few of not less than 30 ladies who prosecutors say have made sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him, many citing encounters at New York City nightspots that resulted in groping, undesirable kissing and different inappropriate habits.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the plaintiff, declined to remark besides to say that her shopper can be going ahead with the trial on Tuesday.