New Orleans prosecutors have filed formal misdemeanor battery charges against actor Shia LaBeouf over an incident in February, but have opted not to pursue hate-crime enhancements despite video evidence showing him using anti-gay slurs. The charges were filed on Thursday by the office of District Attorney Jason Williams, four months after LaBeouf's arrest.
Police arrested LaBeouf on 17 February after he allegedly punched two men and headbutted a third at the R Bar in the Marigny neighbourhood during Mardi Gras. Bar staff had asked him to leave after he became aggressive and directed homophobic slurs at the men, according to police statements. LaBeouf was briefly jailed after being discharged from hospital, then released on a $105,000 bond with a court order to undergo substance abuse treatment.
One of the alleged victims, Nathan Thomas Reed, identifies as queer, and another, Jeffrey Damnit, dresses in drag. Damnit captured cellphone video of LaBeouf calling him a “faggot” outside the bar. Damnit had hoped prosecutors would pursue hate-crime charges under a state law that allows enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by actual or perceived sexual orientation.
Attorney Michael Kennedy, representing Damnit, said: “The fact that the district attorney’s office is moving forward with this case when there is overwhelming evidence that a crime was committed should not be a surprise to anyone – because being a celebrity does not buy you special treatment in New Orleans.”
In an interview after his arrest, LaBeouf told YouTube outlet Channel 5 that “big gay people are scary” to him due to his “traditional Catholic” faith, and claimed that “three gay dudes [were] next to me, touching my leg” before the violence. He added: “I [got] scared. I’m sorry – if that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”
An arraignment date for LaBeouf has not yet been set. This is not his first encounter with the criminal justice system; he faced similar allegations of using homophobic slurs during a 2014 arrest in New York and was arrested for disorderly conduct in Georgia in 2017.
