Judge scolds Shia LaBeouf and orders him to rehab after Mardi Gras arrest
NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans judge ordered actor Shia LaBeouf to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and set a $100,000 bond on Thursday after the film star was charged with two counts of battery over an alleged assault outside a bar during Mardi Gras.
LaBeouf, who waited alone in the courtroom wearing a fleece jacket and jeans tucked into cowboy boots, was also admonished by the judge for allegedly yelling homophobic slurs while hitting multiple people near the French Quarter. The police report said LaBeouf dislocated one victim’s nose.
The judge ordered LaBeouf, 39, to submit to weekly drug tests, including one on the spot in the courthouse. LaBeouf agreed and his attorney said the test did not show illegal substances in his system.
Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Simone Levine called the episode earlier this month a concern for “the safety of this larger community, especially relative to a marginalized community that has gone through so much terror,” referring to the LGBTQ+ community.
“This defendant does not take his alcohol addiction seriously,” Levine said. “This court does not believe he understands the level of seriousness when it comes to these allegations.”
LaBeouf posted bond and declined to comment to reporters. He has not yet formally entered a plea to the charges.
“No, I won’t say a word,” he said in a court hallway while returning from taking a drug and alcohol test prior to the judge’s order. “God bless you, leave me alone.”
Jeffrey Damnit, a local entertainer who is identified in the police report as Jeffrey Klein, previously told The Associated Press that LaBeouf repeatedly punched him and used homophobic slurs while threatening his life. Damnit said he believed LaBeouf had targeted him because he wore makeup and eyeliner.
“This guy wants me to be dead because I wear makeup,” Damnit said. “It’s a screwed-up thing.”
The judge said that when she originally released LaBeouf without bond within hours of his arrest on Feb. 17 she had not previously had access to a police report that describes the actor allegedly using homophobic slurs as he returned to a bar and hit people with a closed fist after being asked to leave. Videos of the altercations have surfaced showing LaBeouf striking multiple people.
After LaBeouf was released from custody, the actor was seen in the French Quarter dancing in the streets on Mardi Gras.
Levine ordered LaBeouf to stay away from the victims and the bar where the episode occurred.
The judge denied a request by LaBeouf to travel to Rome in March for “religious observations, including his father’s baptism.”
Levine said during the hearing that she was concerned whether LaBeouf “could handle his alcohol.”
“Frankly,” LaBeouf’s attorney Sarah Chervinsky told the judge, “being drunk on Mardi Gras is not a crime.” ___
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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