New Orleans state prosecutors on Thursday filed formal misdemeanor battery charges against actor Shia LaBeouf, four months after police arrested him on allegations that he struck three men at a bar. The decision from the office of District Attorney Jason Williams means prosecutors opted not to pursue hate-crime charges against the Transformers star, despite video evidence showing LaBeouf directing anti-gay slurs at the alleged victims.
Details of the Incident
Police arrested LaBeouf after he allegedly punched two men and headbutted a third at the R Bar in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans at approximately 12:45 a.m. on February 17, which coincided with the city's Mardi Gras holiday. Bar staff had asked him to leave after he became increasingly aggressive and insulted the men with homophobic slurs, according to sworn police statements filed in court. LaBeouf was briefly jailed after being discharged from a hospital where he was taken at the time of his arrest, but he was soon released after posting a $105,000 bond and was ordered by a judge to enroll in substance abuse treatment.
Victims' Accounts
One of the alleged victims, Nathan Thomas Reed, identifies as queer, and another, Jeffrey Damnit, dresses in drag. Damnit captured a cellphone video of LaBeouf directing the homophobic insult "faggot" at him outside the bar. Damnit had previously expressed hope that prosecutors would charge LaBeouf under a state law allowing enhanced penalties for crimes based on actual or perceived sex or gender. The Guardian has contacted Reed and attorneys for Damnit and LaBeouf for comment. The third alleged victim has declined to comment on the case.
Legal Proceedings
An arraignment date for LaBeouf, at which he would enter a plea, was not immediately available. The charges were contained in a bill of information filed by Williams on Thursday morning, hours before a court hearing for individuals arrested but not yet formally charged. In an interview published 11 days after his arrest, LaBeouf told the YouTube outlet Channel 5 that "big gay people are scary" to him due to his "traditional Catholic" faith. He also alleged that "three gay dudes [were] next to me, touching my leg" before the violence, adding, "I [got] scared. I'm sorry – if that's homophobic, then I'm that."
Previous Legal Issues
This is not LaBeouf's first encounter with the criminal justice system. In 2014, he was arrested for disrupting a Broadway show in New York City and faced accusations of insulting a police officer with a homophobic slur. In 2017, he was recorded making racist remarks and telling a Black officer he would go to hell during a disorderly conduct arrest in Savannah, Georgia, which resulted in a court-mandated stint in rehab.
