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** Video captures Shia LaBeouf on Bourbon Street in New Orleans following a prior arrest.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Actor Shia LaBeouf finds himself embroiled in legal troubles once again. After being previously arrested and charged with battery for allegedly assaulting multiple individuals outside a New Orleans bar earlier this month, LaBeouf faced yet another arrest on Saturday. This time, he has been charged with an additional count of simple battery, as revealed by court documents.
The connection between this new charge and the altercation on February 17 remains uncertain. The earlier incident took place outside the Royal Street Inn & R Bar amidst Mardi Gras festivities, where LaBeouf was reportedly involved in a scuffle. Witnesses claim he used homophobic slurs while physically assaulting several people. Attempts to reach LaBeouf’s attorney and the New Orleans police for comment on Saturday were unsuccessful.
During the February 17 incident, video footage depicts a shirtless LaBeouf aggressively shoving one individual to the ground and striking another in the face, allegedly causing potential dislocation of the victim’s nose, according to a police report from New Orleans.
Jeffrey Damnit, a recognized local performer identified in the police report as Jeffrey Klein, has come forward as one of the individuals allegedly targeted by LaBeouf during the altercation.
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, LaBeouf’s attorney, Sarah Chervinsky, told the judge: “Frankly, being drunk on Mardi Gras is not a crime.”