Actor Shia LaBeouf arrested again on battery charge in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Actor Shia LaBeouf, who was arrested and charged with battery after police say he punched several people outside a New Orleans bar earlier this month, was arrested again on Saturday and charged with one additional misdemeanor count of simple battery, court records show.
LaBeouf’s attorney said in a statement that his arrest is connected to a Feb. 17 brawl outside the Royal Street Inn & R Bar near the French Quarter for which LaBeouf had previously been arrested. In that case, LaBeouf is accused of repeatedly using homophobic slurs while hitting multiple people during Mardis Gras celebrations.
LaBeouf’s attorney Sarah Chervinsky said when they learned New Orleans police issued a new arrest warrant Friday, LaBeouf voluntarily turned himself in to the Orleans Parish jail.
“No regular person would be required to post over $100,000 in bonds, and be jailed two separate times for one misdemeanor incident,” Chervinsky said. “Just as he does not deserve preferential treatment, Mr. LaBeouf also does not deserve to be treated more harshly by the police and courts just because he is a public figure.”
Telephone and email messages left Saturday with New Orleans police were not immediately returned.
In the Feb. 17 incident, a video shows a shirtless LaBeouf 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.
Jeffrey Damnit, a well-known local entertainer who police identified 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 told The Associated Press.
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.
Police arrived at the bar around 12:45 a.m. on the morning of the city’s famous Fat Tuesday revelry and arrested LaBeouf.
LaBeouf has not entered a plea and declined to talk to reporters on Thursday after a New Orleans judge ordered him to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation. During that hearing, Chervinsky told the judge: “Frankly, being drunk on Mardi Gras is not a crime.”