Shia LaBeouf has been ordered into a diversion programme related to an arrest for misdemeanor theft and misdemeanor battery last summer, The Times has confirmed.
A judge’s order handed down means the ‘Peanut Butter Falcon’ actor could skip jail time in the case. LaBeouf pleaded not guilty last fall when he was arraigned in an LA court for a June 12 altercation in which he allegedly stole a man’s hat.
According to the City Attorney’s Office, which gave a statement to E! News, LaBeouf must go to therapy (including anger management) once a week; stay sober and attend a 12-step programme and wear a sobriety monitor; refrain from violence; give up to law enforcement any weapons he might have; and stay 100 yards away from the victim and from the location of the confrontation.
If that’s completed within 12 months, the charges could be dropped.
LaBeouf, who reportedly appeared in court Thursday, also has to obey all laws and can’t contact the victim, who was identified in prior legal documents as Tyler Murphy. The incident was described initially by TMZ as a verbal altercation that turned physical and ended with LaBeouf taking off with Murphy’s hat.
The 34-year-old’s arraignment last fall capped a tumultuous timeline that includes multiple arrests, citations, bad behaviour and other conflicts going back to when the ‘Pieces of a Woman’ actor was nine years old.
More recently, LaBeouf was accused by former girlfriend FKA twigs of physical and emotional abuse. Days after those disturbing allegations went public, the singer Sia tweeted an allegation that LaBeouf had “conned” her into an adulterous relationship by claiming to be single.
Twigs, a musician and actor born Tahliah Barnett, leveled her allegations in a civil suit filed in early December 2020. She accused him of sexual battery, including knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease, verbal and emotional abuse and physical assault during their relationship, which ran from 2018 into 2019, after the two worked together on the 2019 movie ‘Honey Boy’.
“I am not in the position to defend any of my actions,” the actor said in response to the lawsuit. “I owe these women the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”
Sia did not say when she was allegedly conned by LaBeouf, but he worked with her on the 2015 music video for her song ‘Elastic Heart’. In the video, he was initially pitted in a wrestling match against ‘Chandelier’ music-video star Maddie Ziegler, with the younger dancer ultimately going free while the actor remains in a cage.
Around that time, LaBeouf was involved with actress Mia Goth. LaBeouf and Goth separated in 2018, though they were spotted together in Pasadena shortly after the pandemic began.
