- By Sam Cabral
- BBC News, Washington
Jun 6, 2023 at 4:11pm BST
Updated 20 minutes ago
Image source: Getty Images
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Cuba Gooding Jr. pictured at a previous court hearing in 2022. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has settled a legal dispute with an unnamed woman who accused him of raping her in a New York hotel room in 2013.
It came as jury selection was about to begin in a federal civil trial that was expected to include damaging testimony against him.
The Oscar winner, 55, has denied the allegation and insists his interactions with the woman were consensual.
Dozens of women accused him of groping and unwanted touching.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Last year, Mr Gooding pleaded guilty to kissing a woman without her consent.
In that case, he was spared jail time or a criminal record, and the charges against three other accusers were dismissed under a settlement agreement with prosecutors.
He was ordered to complete six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling.
But the testimony of these three women, who say the actor molested them between 2009 and 2019, should be heard at this civil trial in Manhattan.
The lawsuit, now settled, was filed in 2020 on behalf of a woman identified only as Jane Doe. The plaintiff sought $6m (£4.8m) in damages.
She claimed Mr Gooding introduced himself to her at a local restaurant in the summer of 2013 and invited her for a drink to the Mercer Hotel in Soho, where he was staying.
At the hotel, she claimed, the actor told her he needed to change, invited her to his fifth-floor room, and began to undress.
The woman said she tried to leave, but Mr Gooding blocked her way, pushed her onto the bed, “didn’t stop” touching her, “aggressively stripped off” her underwear and penetrated her twice.
A lawyer who represented the accused at the time described the allegations as “completely false and defamatory”.
The presiding judge ruled last week that he would allow testimony from three of Mr Gooding’s other accusers because they were “sufficiently similar” to the plaintiff’s allegation.
One woman, Kelsey Harbert, said last year that Mr Gooding’s previous deal was “more disappointing than words can express”.
Jury selection for the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday at 10:00 am EDT, but neither Mr. Gooding nor attorneys for either side showed up.
An entry in the court’s electronic file on the case reads: “PROCESSING OUT. Reason for cancellation: The parties have resolved the matter.”