Shia LaBeouf can remain unincarcerated while he awaits trial after his arrest during an extended Mardi Gras bar crawl that erupted into violence, a court has ruled.
During a hearing at a New Orleans courthouse on Thursday, Parish Judge Simone Levine set the actor’s bail at $100,000. He’s been charged with two counts of battery for fighting two men involved in ejecting him from a bar, where he was allegedly causing a disturbance and displaying violent aggression. One of the alleged victims later characterized the confrontation as a hate crime because he was called a homophobic slur, though the court declined to add additional charges.
Under the conditions of his release, LaBeouf must undergo drug and alcohol testing and cannot leave New Orleans. The judge denied his request to leave the state to travel to Rome in March for his father’s baptism.
“Clearly you don’t take your alcohol problems seriously,” Levine said. “Please take charge.”
Seated at the far back pew of the courtroom with a sheriff standing beside him, he appeared at the hearing clean shaven and wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a beige jacket.
At the hearing, Sarah Chervinsky, his lawyer, argued that 120 people were arrested on Mardi Gras for similar assaults and that 26 have been freed on bail.
The headline-splashing arrest came after LaBeouf claimed to be sober, blaming past abusive behavior on alcoholism. The incident took place 15 minutes after midnight at R Bar in the city’s Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. It involved LaBeouf striking a man involved in removing him from the bar with closed fists. He later returned to the building acting more aggressively as a small crowd gathered and looked on. After several onlookers held him down, LaBeouf allegedly resumed hitting the same person whom he’d punched earlier and then hit another person in the nose.
LaBeouf was taken to a local hospital for unknown injuries and, upon his release, arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery.
Last week, LaBeouf posted “free me” on X as new videos circulated on social media showing him dancing on Bourbon Street. He could be seen holding his release paperwork in his mouth.
Steve Garbarino contributed to this report.
