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April 13 (UPI) -- Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty in a New York court room on Wednesday to a single count of forcible touching, court documents show. The 54-year-old actor pleaded guilty to the class A misdemeanor, the most serious of the six original charges.
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The charges stem from accusations that Gooding fondled three women on separate occasions between October 2018 and June 2019.
Gooding was first arrested on June 13, 2019, on the original misdemeanor charges for having touched a 29-year-old woman at a Manhattan lounge.
At the time, his lawyer Mark Jay Heller told the New York Post the charges were a product of his client being a celebrity and were unfounded.
"The new accuser is just one more splinter that comes out of the woodwork when a celebrity is criminally charged, but none of the splinters will form a plank leading to his conviction because he has not committed any crime," Heller said at the time.
The Oscar winner has begun alcohol and behavior modification treatment and if he continues both without further arrests, can reduce the charge down to harassment, potentially having his case sealed.
