The deal lets Gooding avoid any possibility of jail time if he continues “alcohol and behavior modification” counseling for six months.
After that, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and instead plead guilty to a lesser violation of harassment.
The accuser in that encounter, Kelsey Harbert, was allowed to speak in court on Wednesday, recounting how, out of nowhere, Gooding grabbed her breast “as if I was a piece of meat for dinner that night.” Gooding had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing. His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes.
“We credit and believe all the survivors in this case,” said prosecutor Coleen Balbert. But under the circumstances, Wednesday’s outcome “is a fair and equitable disposition,” she added.Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013.
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