Jonathan Majors will face trail for domestic abuse charges after a New York judge denied a motion to dismiss the case.
First reported in March, Majors was arrested on assault, strangulation and harassment charges in New York, after being accused of assaulting his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, in New York in an alleged “domestic dispute”. Majors denied all allegations.
He appeared in court in August, after which his criminal defence lawyer Priya Chaudhry released a statement denying the allegations again and calling for them to be thrown out, claiming that they had delivered evidence to prove the woman had attacked Majors and “not the other way around”. Majors has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
On Wednesday (October 25), a New York judge decided that the US actor will face trial on domestic abuse charges after rejecting the defence’s motion to dismiss the case. He will now appear in court to face the charges on November 29.
Majors appeared in court via video on Wednesday because he was out of state. His lawyers also requested that evidence containing “sensitive information” remained sealed and not for public knowledge as “the disclosure of sensitive information will limit Mr Majors’ right to a fair trial”.
After this, Jabbari was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of misdemeanour assault and misdemeanour criminal mischief (via The New York Times).
Later on, the Manhattan district attorney’s office officially “declined to prosecute the case against [the accuser] because it lacks prosecutorial merit,” spokesperson Alvin Bragg said Thursday morning, per Deadline.
Jonathan Majors and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in ‘Loki’. CREDIT: Marvel/Disney
Meanwhile, Disney has removed Magazine Dreams, a forthcoming drama starring Majors, from its release calendar amid the actor’s newly-scheduled assault trial.
Majors made his return to Marvel TV series Loki last week, unveiling his new character – a 19th century inventor Victor Timely. But the show’s new episodes were completed long before allegations were made against the actor, producer Kevin Wright confirmed to NME.
“In regards to our show, we had finished shooting [when Majors was arrested],” Wright told NME. “We were really happy with our story – and I would say the story that’s on screen is the story that we set out to tell. And anything else, I think, we wouldn’t say.”
When asked if there have been any internal conversations about Majors’ continued involvement in the series beyond season two, Wright declined to comment, saying that he couldn’t “say too much without spoiling this season.”
Majors made his Marvel debut in Loki in 2021 as supervillain He Who Remains, a variant of the mysterious, all-powerful Kang The Conqueror, who Majors later played in blockbuster film Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. He Who Remains was killed at the end of season one, but Majors returned this week in season two’s third episode to play another of the character’s variants, Victor Timely.
The post Jonathan Majors: judge denies motion to dismiss domestic abuse case against actor appeared first on NME.
