New Orleans prosecutors file formal battery charges against Shia LaBeouf

New Orleans state prosecutors on Thursday filed formal misdemeanor battery charges against Shia LaBeouf, four months after police officers there arrested him on allegations that he struck three men at a bar.

That move from the office of local district attorney Jason Williams means prosecutors opted to not pursue hate-crime charges against LaBeouf, the star of the Transformers film franchise, despite claims evidently supported by video that LaBeouf aimed anti-gay slurs at the alleged victims.

Police arrested LaBeouf after he purportedly punched two men and headbutted a third at the R Bar in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans at about 12.45am on 17 February – which was the city’s Mardi Gras holiday.

Bar staff had asked him to leave after becoming increasingly aggressive and insulting the men he battered with homophobic slurs, police said in sworn statements filed in court. LaBeouf was briefly jailed after being discharged from a hospital where he was taken at the time of his arrest. But he was soon released, made to put up a $105,000 bond and told by a judge to enroll in substance abuse treatment.

One of the alleged victims, Nathan Thomas Reed, identifies as queer and another dresses in drag, the Guardian has previously reported. The latter of those men, named Jeffrey Damnit, captured a cellphone video of LaBeouf directing the homophobic insult “faggot” at him outside the bar. And Damnit had previously spoken openly about his hope that prosecutors would charge LaBeouf under a state law which allows for enhanced penalties against those who victimize others based on the “actual or perceived” basis of sex or gender, among other categories.

The Guardian has contacted Reed as well as attorneys for Damnit and LaBeouf for comment. The third alleged victim has said he is not commenting on the case.

An arraignment date for LaBeouf, at which he would enter a plea, was not immediately available.

LaBeouf’s charges were contained in what is known as a bill of information filed by Williams on Thursday morning, hours before a court hearing set for people who have been arrested but not yet formally charged.

In an interview published 11 days after his arrest, LaBeouf told the YouTube outlet Channel 5 that “big gay people are scary” to him given his “traditional Catholic” faith.