Cuba Gooding, rape accuser agree to overturn liability verdict against him

Cuba Gooding Jr has asked a US judge to overturn a finding of liability in a civil lawsuit brought by a woman who accused the Oscar-winning actor of raping her twice in 2013, after she agreed his failure to formally respond to her accusations was not willful.

According to a case filed in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Gooding never saw the complaint from the accuser known as Jane Doe until August 3, five days after US District Judge Paul Crotty granted her a default judgment.

Goodings’ attorney Edward Sapone said the processing server filed the $ 6 million lawsuit in an apartment where the actor’s girlfriend lived, but that Gooding had never lived there and the doorman did not want to accept the documents.

No one ever served me with the summons and complaint, including the doorman, Gooding said in a signed affidavit.

While I respect the complainant and her lawyer, I respectfully deny her allegations [and] looking to have the default overridden so that I can defend myself, he added.

Gooding agreed to cover the legal costs for obtaining the default judgment.

Gloria Allred, an attorney for Doe, was not immediately available for comment. A stipulation signed by another of Does’s attorneys indicated that Doe consented to quash the default.

Doe said the alleged rapes took place at the Mercer Hotel in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, shortly after meeting Gooding at a restaurant and lounge in Greenwich Village.

She said Gooding asked her to go up to her room, saying he needed to change clothes quickly, but pushed her onto a bed, raped her and raped her again as she tried to flee. Doe said she had told him No several times.

In Wednesday’s filing, Sapone said Gooding and at least two other witnesses would testify that Doe had not been raped vaginally or anally, or held in a hotel room against her will.

Gooding won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1997 for Jerry Maguire and played OJ Simpson in the 2016 television miniseries The People v. OJ Simpson.

He pleaded not guilty in 2019 in another Manhattan court to unwanted touching of three women in separate incidents.