{"id":8134,"date":"2025-10-19T03:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/8134\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T03:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:30:16","slug":"cuba-gooding-jr-ordered-to-pay-more-than-300k-to-woman-he-was-accused-of-groping-at-nyc-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/8134\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba Gooding Jr. ordered to pay more than $300K to woman he was accused of groping at NYC bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuba Gooding Jr. has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 to a woman he was accused of groping at a Manhattan bar<\/a> in a lawsuit the disgraced \u201cJerry Maguire\u201d actor completely ignored.<\/p>\n

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Latin ruled in Kelsey Harbert\u2019s favor in the case in August<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

In comments to the Daily News, Harbert, who sued Gooding for sexual battery and assault under the Adult Survivors Act in November 2023<\/a>, on Thursday said the outcome \u201crestored some of my hope in the system after six years of an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEWKelsey Harbert makes a statement at NYS Supreme Court after the sentencing of Cuba Gooding Jr. on Oct. 13, 2022 in New York. (Photo by David Dee Delgado\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt validating especially after the criminal case ended in such a disappointing plea deal,\u201d Harbert said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After surveillance footage went viral showing Gooding appearing to reach for Harbert\u2019s breast after putting his hand on her thigh, the actor was criminally charged by the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office in 2019<\/a> in a sex crimes case ultimately alleging he groped and kissed Harbert and two other women without their consent.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0plea deal<\/a> reached with DA Alvin Bragg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The deal required him to apologize on the record to Harbert\u00a0and another woman who had accused him of pinching her buttocks at TAO restaurant in lower Manhattan, but not to plead guilty<\/a> 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 \u2014 thus wiping his criminal record \u2014 in exchange for going to therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched, anyone,\u201d Gooding said at the 2022 hearing. \u201cI am a celebrity figure. I come into contact with people. I never want to them to feel slighted or uncomfortable in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Harbert read a victim impact statement at the same proceeding, the actor\u2019s lawyer in his criminal case, Frank Rothman, claimed her account was a \u201cproduct of her imagination,\u201d comments the presiding judge said were inappropriate.<\/p>\n

Harbert had also taken issue with Bragg meeting with the actor\u2019s lawyers, accusing the DA of giving an ear to the actor\u2019s team because he was famous. The News reached out to the DA\u2019s office for a response to Harbert\u2019s comments on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> in Manhattan Federal Court in June 2023.<\/p>\n

One of Harbert\u2019s attorneys, Margaret Gandy, a former federal prosecutor and partner in a law firm founded by the lead attorney on the team that secured the rapper R Kelly\u2019s 2021 conviction<\/a>,\u00a0on Thursday said Latin\u2019s decision to award significant punitive damages reflected the impact of her testimony before him this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been steadfast in trying to seek accountability and the judge\u2019s order and the judgement that followed are really a sign of justice,\u201d Gandy said.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 18, 2025 at 11:01 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuba Gooding Jr. has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 to a woman he was accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,266,267,9,24,12,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-8134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}