WARNING: The article below contains content pertaining to, but not limited to civil lawsuits concerning accusations of the following offenses: sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, rape and sex trafficking. If you or some you know has been sexually assaulted, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
On Wednesday, November 22, Cuba Gooding Jr. found himself at the center of two civil lawsuits filed at the New York Supreme Court under the state’s Adult Survivors Act.
The first of the two lawsuits pertains to a 2018 incident at a New York nightclub and a restaurant. A waitress at New York’s LAVO claims the actor forcibly put his tongue in her mouth without her consent. Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to a charge related to the incident in 2022, but the current civil lawsuit includes a transcript from a hearing in which Good Jr. reportedly admitted to the act.
The second lawsuit involves Gooding Jr. and a woman named Kelsey Harbert. Harbert accuses the actor of groping her breast without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in 2019. Afterward, Harbert filed a police report and Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to engaging in what he reportedly described as “non-consensual physical contact.”
Both lawsuits were filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act. Put into effect late last year, the act allows plaintiffs to file lawsuits regarding sexual offense claims that would have otherwise been barred by the statute of limitations. Thus far, former President Donald Trump, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and several other public figures have been sued under the act.
