EXCLUSIVEActor Cuba Gooding Jr. pictured rubbing a woman's shoulder after being accused of rape in the past

By Noa Halff For Dailymail.Com 20:09 05 Jun 2024, updated 22:01 05 Jun 2024

Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. can't keep his hands to himself as he showed once more at a five-star Miami hotel 

The star of such movies as A Few Good Men and Boyz n the Hood was seen rubbing a woman's bare shoulder as they sat at the bar

But this time the actor – who has faced civil lawsuits and criminal charges alleging forcible touching and sexual abuse – seemed to be on his best behavior.

The woman, one of four surrounding Gooding, 56, was seen smiling at him as he caressed her upper back.

Exclusive video obtained by Dailymail.com capture the star in a candid moment during a party Saturday night at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models weekend at the luxury W South Beach hotel. 

At the same party, Sports Illustrated cover model Brooks Nader made a daring fashion choice, wearing a revealing transparent knit dress that left her behind exposed. 

The incident comes after a history of legal troubles for Gooding, who was once dubbed a 'serial groper'. They include allegations of sexual assault and even rape. He admitted to forcibly kissing a nightclub worker in New York.

He insists he is '100% changed' since his legal woes.

'I'm ten times more aware of what is going on around me and I just use that as my focus,' he told Piers Morgan in  2002. 

Gooding narrowly avoided a civil rape trial in 2023 by reaching a last-minute settlement with a woman who accused him of assault in a New York City hotel a decade prior.

The accuser alleged that Gooding raped her after meeting at a Manhattan restaurant and subsequently inviting her to his hotel room.

Gooding, who won his best supporting actor Oscar in 1996 for Jerry Maguire, was accused of persuading her to join him at the Mercer Hotel in Soho where he said he would be stopping at his room so he could change clothing.

She said in her lawsuit in which she sought $6million that Gooding then raped her anally and vaginally. The encounter occurred in 2013. 

The woman had proceeded anonymously until Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled that she would have to reveal her name at trial.

His defense team claimed the woman bragged to others about engaging in intimate relations with a celebrity. That evidence was never made public.

The trial was set to go ahead in federal court, but was halted just minutes after with the announcement of the settlement, the terms of which remain undisclosed.

The accuser said she met Gooding at Le Souk lounge, where they chatted and eventually went back to his hotel room. Once in his hotel room, the woman said that Gooding took off his clothes, put on music, and then began to fondle her.

She says that she told him 'no' but Gooding continued to touch her and eventually raped her.

Gooding has been accused of committing sexual misconduct against more than 30 other women, including groping, unwanted kissing and other inappropriate behavior.

The judge had said he would let three women testify who were also subjected to sudden sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults after meeting Gooding in social settings such as festivals, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. 

One of the women who had planned to testify at the trial was Kelsey Harbert, who told police Gooding fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square in 2019.

Gooding's legal woes extended beyond the civil case, as he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of forcible touching in April 2022, stemming from allegations of misconduct at various Manhattan nightspots in 2018 and 2019. 

He admitted to forcibly kissing a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018.

After Gooding pleaded guilty in New York state court to a charge that spared him from jail or a criminal history, Harbert said that never getting her day in court was 'more disappointing than words can say.'

By staying out of trouble and completing six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, Gooding was permitted to withdraw his guilty plea and plead guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation, expunging his criminal record and preventing further penalties.

In a November 2022 interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Gooding insisted he was '100% changed' following the accusations.

'I don't want this to stop me connecting with my fans,' he told Morgan. 

'But it is one of those moments where I look back and I say, "How did you find yourself in this scenario, in this situation?"

'It’s like I said in court, I don’t want anybody to feel that they’ve been treated inappropriately or harassed by me in any way. I love my fans. I love men and women, all of my fans.

'The world knows, I pled guilty for the count of forcible touching, kissed a waitress. So, that’s that, I’m not here to shame anybody or to, you know, take (on) any of these women who have made their statements. 

'You don’t want to let down those who have supported you and brought you where you’re at and my family, my friends who are responsible for the success that I have today. 

'You feel a guilt and you get through that and you work on ways to improve yourself.'