Oct. 13 (UPI) — Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. avoided prison in a Thursday court appearance on a forcible touching charge after fulfilling the terms of a plea agreement, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Gooding pleaded guilty Thursday to a lesser crime of harassment, but that will remain permanently on his criminal record.
Prosecutor Coleen Balbert said Gooding finished six months of alcohol and behavior modification counseling and that allowed him avoid prison by pleading to the harassment charge.
In April, Gooding pleaded guilty to the Class A misdemeanor of forcible touching for fondling three women without consent in a Manhattan bar.
According to CNN, Gooding’s plea agreement terms included continuing alcohol and behavior modification treatment for six months and having no other arrests.
After he was charged in with sexual abuse and forcible touching at the Magic Hour bar in Times Square, more women came forward alleging similar behavior by Gooding.
Gooding still faces two civil suits accusing him of abuse — one in New York State Supreme Court and another in U.S. District Court.
The federal suit alleges Gooding raped a woman known publicly only as Jane Doe in 2013 inside Gooding’s room at the Mercy Hotel in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.
Gooding won an Academy Award in 1997 for his role as a football player in Jerry Maguire.
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