NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Actor Shia LaBeouf pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of simple battery and was sentenced to probation for punching people outside a New Orleans bar during Mardi Gras in February.
LaBeouf will also be required to attend an alcohol treatment program under the sentence handed down by an Orleans Parish judge, according to Sarah Chervinsky, an attorney for the actor.
LeBeouf, most widely known for his starring roles in 2007’s “Transformers” and in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull,” had been released on bail following his arrest near the city's historic French Quarter. Video of the Feb. 17 encounter shows a shirtless LaBeouf outside a bar shoving one person to the ground and hitting another person in the face, “causing his nose to possibly dislocate,” according to a New Orleans police report.
Orleans Parish Judge Juana Marine-Lombard handed the actor a six month suspended sentence and two years of probation. LaBeouf was also ordered to stay away from the three victims and the bar.
“Mr. LaBeouf came to court today wanting to take accountability for his part in what happened, and he has done so,” Chervinsky said. “Now he’s looking forward to focusing on family, work, and new creative projects.”
Jeffrey Damnit, a local entertainer whom police identified as Jeffrey Klein in the incident report, said he was one of the people attacked by LaBeouf. He has said LaBeouf had pushed him from behind at the bar earlier in the night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.
Chervinsky called it a “minor Mardi Gras bar tussle” and said there was “no evidence it was about bias or prejudice.”
Damnit's attorney said his client hopes LaBeouf's behavior improves after undergoing substance abuse treatment.
"In New Orleans we are all equal, we should all feel safe, and we don’t treat people different based upon relative fame,” attorney Michael Kennedy said.
After LaBeouf was charged in February, a judge ordered him to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
LaBeouf has had several run-ins with the law during his career, including a 2017 New York City arrest on suspicion of assault that happened during a livestream.
While on location in Georgia filming “The Peanut Butter Falcon” later that year, he was arrested for public drunkenness and accused of disorderly conduct and obstruction and sentenced to probation.
In 2020, he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft in Los Angeles.
That year, the English singer and actor FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, also filed a lawsuit alleging LaBeouf was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship, which they settled in July.
The actor first gained acclaim as a child for his role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens,” and worked steadily into adulthood.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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