Actor Shia LaBeouf has pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery for punching people outside a New Orleans bar in February during Mardi Gras.
Video of the February 17 encounter showed a shirtless LaBeouf shoving one person to the ground and hitting another person in the face, “causing his nose to possibly dislocate,” a New Orleans police report said.
Jeffrey Damnit, a well-known local entertainer who police named as Jeffrey Klein in the incident report, said he was one of the people attacked by LaBeouf.
“He hit me, he connected a few times with punches, he pushed me a few times,” Damnit said earlier this year.
LaBeouf “just got nuts” trying to start fights and telling the entertainer and others that he would beat them up, Damnit said.
He added that LaBeouf had pushed him from behind at the bar earlier in the night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.
Damnit and others subdued LaBeouf and tried to get him to leave the area, but he would not leave and became more aggressive, according to Damnit and the police report.
Labeouf’s attorney, Sarah Chervinsky, said in a statement after the guilty plea, “The police and DA investigation proved exactly what Shia Labeouf said from the beginning — that this was nothing more than a minor Mardi Gras bar tussle.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
“There is no evidence it was about bias or prejudice, which is why the state only charged these low level misdemeanors. Mr. LaBeouf came to court today wanting to take accountability for his part in what happened, and he has done so. Now he’s looking forward to focusing on family, work and new creative projects.”
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.
He is perhaps best known for his roles in 2007’s Transformers and in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.