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U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan
granted a default judgment on Gooding's liability to the
plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, without addressing the merits of
her accusations.
"Defendant has completely failed to engage with this case,"
making his default "willful," Crotty said.
Gooding, 53, will have a chance to argue that Doe deserves less
than the $6 million she sought in her complaint last August,
including for pain and suffering as well as punitive damages.
Crotty ordered him to address the case by Sept. 7.
Representatives for Gooding did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
"Mr. Gooding failed to respond to the serious allegations made
by our client," Doe's lawyer Gloria Allred said in a statement.
"We look forward to the [damages] hearing."
Gooding won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for "Jerry
Maguire," and portrayed O.J. Simpson in the 2016 television
miniseries "The People v. O.J. Simpson."
He also pleaded not guilty in 2019 in another Manhattan court to
unwanted touching of three women in separate incidents.
Doe said she met Gooding at a Greenwich Village restaurant and
lounge, where he invited her and a friend for drinks at the
nearby Mercer hotel in SoHo.
She said Gooding later asked her up to his room, saying he
needed to quickly change clothes, but pushed her onto a bed and
raped her, and raped her again as she tried to flee. Doe said
she told Gooding "no" numerous times.
When Doe filed her complaint, Mark Jay Heller, a lawyer for
Gooding, called her accusations false. Heller did not
immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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