Shia LaBeouf has been praised for his great skills as an actor, but off the set the man has had a less than stellar track record. More than once he's found himself in legal trouble and now he's dealing with a pair of legal issues, one in civil court, and another in criminal court. At the end of 2020 he was sued by a former girlfriend who claims the actor abused her. Prior to that, LaBeouf was charged with petty theft stemming from a physical altercation last summer. Now, it looks like that case may never go to trial, as long as LaBeouf completes a year long diversion program set up by the court.
Last summer Shia LaBeouf got in a physical altercation with a man in Los Angeles and apparently left the scene with the man's hat, leading to charges of petty theft and battery. TMZ reports that the judge in the case has now offered LaBeouf a way out of going through with the trial. It includes attending private therapy for anger management at least once a week for the next 12 months. He must also continue with alcohol monitoring, the actor has already been dealing with rehab since last fall following the lawsuit against him. In addition, he must not obtain, or make an attempt to obtain, a firearm in the next 12 months, and must not attempt to use force or violence again in the next year.
If Shia LaBeouf can meet these requirements, then the charges against him will be dropped and there will be no trial. The court will check on him in three months to make sure he's been following the terms. He's also required to stay 100 yards away from the location of the incident, and 100 years away from the victim.
At their core these expectations seem simple enough, but a year's worth of anger management certainly indicates the court is taking this seriously. It's unclear exactly what happened between Shia LaBeouf and the victim, but obviously the police viewed the actor as the aggressor in the incident and feel that anger was at the core.
Both charges against Shia LaBeouf are misdemeanors, so the potential punishment is, by comparison, minimal, if he goes to trial and is found guilty. But he could still have to pay a serious fine would probably receive some jail time. The fact that LaBeouf has entered into this new program, rather than simply pleading guilty to the charges, would indicate that whatever the potential punishment is, he's looking to avoid it.
This isn't exactly Shia LaBeouf's first brush with the law. He's been arrested before, for disorderly conduct in 2017 and public drunkenness in 2015. And he is still dealing with the lawsuit against him filed by FKA Twigs.
