Shia LaBeouf pleaded guilty to punching three people outside a bar in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday — an "F-word" laced-fight caught on cellphone video that's since gone viral — and was sentenced to probation on Wednesday, according to media reports.
Despite that video and the request of one victim that prosecutors pursue hate crime charges against the Transformers actor, the judge accepted a plea deal made by prosecutors and LaBeouf's lawyer and dismissed the incident as nothing more than a "tussle." She discounted accusations he showed any "bias or prejudice" to his victims.
LeBeouf, who currently has three new films in production, must attend an alcohol treatment program under the sentence handed down by Orleans Parish judge Juana Marine-Lombard, according to his attorney, Sarah Chervinsky.
LaBeouf posted a $100,000 bond on Feb. 26, after a judge revoked his initial release on his own recognizance. He spent nine days behind bars following his arrest early on the morning of Feb. 17 in the city’s historic French Quarter during Mardi Gras celebrations, as Out reported.
Police say they were called at 12:45 a.m. because LaBeouf was allegedly “causing a disturbance and becoming increasingly aggressive” inside the bar, and started punching people after being escorted outside.
Video of the street fight shows a shirtless LaBeouf outside that 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. Police said LaBeouf repeatedly called two men "faggots," including while he was being arrested.
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Jeffrey Damnit, a local drag entertainer who was in makeup when LaBeouf punched him, said LaBeouf also pushed him from behind at the bar earlier that night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.
He told the Guardian in February that the actor's behavior was “a complete slap in the face to any alternative-culture person.”
“Due to his fame, if he gets away without serious consequence, anyone who looks up to him or even just knows of him will think it is OK to do the same,” Damnit said. “They will think you can call someone ‘faggot,’ punch him a few times, get a free room for the night and be back out partying by noon the next day.”
Damnit’s attorney said after the sentencing that his client hopes LaBeouf’s behavior improves after the actor undergoes substance abuse treatment. Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement that his office consulted with all three victims to ensure their support before offering LaBeouf the plea deal.
LeBeouf, who turns 40 next week, pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery. In addition to sentencing him to two years' probation, Judge Marine-Lombard handed him a six month suspended sentence. He was ordered to stay away from both his victims and that bar.
Despite his antigay rant, the judge ruled she saw “no evidence it was about bias or prejudice.” Chervinsky said it was clear to her that LaBeouf wanted “to take accountability for his part in what happened” and called it a “minor Mardi Gras bar tussle.”
It's hardly LaBeouf's first one.
As The Advocate reported in 2011, LaBeouf got into a bar brawl in Los Angeles after another patron called him "a fucking faggot." Although police put them both in handcuffs, neither that man nor LaBeouf opted to press charges.
Then in 2014, Out reported LaBeouf was arrested for disrupting a performance of Cabaret at Broadway's Studio 54. He admitted on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he sexually assaulted Alan Cumming.
"I give him a slap on the ass because I think he deserves it," LaBeouf told the late night TV host. "He's seducing me -- I mean, he's the sexiest man I've ever seen ... I grabbed a whole cheek because I wanted the party right here in my pants."
LaBeouf began receiving outpatient treatment for addiction days after his arrest, and he later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
"There was an atmosphere, when I went down to go onstage and start the show, that everyone was freaking out because there was someone who seemed to be a crazy person shouting and stuff," Cumming told Conan O'Brien on his talk show the following week.
"We've all done things where we've been out of it and messed up," Cumming said. "I just think that not everyone doesn't have to deal with it on a worldwide scale and I thought he made a very good recovery, and he did say the reason he did it was because I was the sexiest man he'd ever seen."
