Jonathan Majors’ trial on domestic violence charges once again has been delayed and may not happen until late this year now.
In a rescheduled hearing in New York City today, Judge Michael Gaffey listened to arguments from both the actor’s defense team and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on the sharing of evidence and a motion by Majors’ team to dismiss the matter. The Loki actor is looking at a year behind bars if found guilty on the misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment stemming from a March 25 incident with a now former girlfriend.
No ruling on the motion was issued Friday by Judge Gaffey, but the Criminal Court judge has told the D.A.’s office that they have until October 6 to respond to the defense’s motion. The defense have to reply by October 13, with the judge making a ruling by October 25. The protective order issued earlier this summer is still in effect.
Just like the last hearing on September 6 (which was supposed to have been the start of the trial), Majors was not in the Manhattan courtroom in person with his lawyers and prosecutors from the District Attorney’s office. The actor appeared virtually from LA.
However, unlike past hearings in the case, a large portion of today’s session saw no one but the lawyers, the judge and court officials allowed in the room.
“This is going to be a proceeding that will be under seal, because the law requires the issues that we’re about to discuss on the record must be sealed,” Judge Gaffey said from the bench before kicking media and members of the public out at around 2:45 PM ET. The doors were reopened at around 3:30 PM ET for journalists and others to hear the order of events for response and reply next month
Today’s partially closed hearing comes after Majors’ attorneys Priya Chaudhry, Seth Zuckerman and David Winkler filed a motion o September 12 to dismiss the matter. The filing centers on the D.A,’s office’s alleged “multifaceted failure” to hand over “highly significant discovery due to the defense” in a timely or practical fashion.
“From the beginning of this case, the People have had incontrovertible evidence that Jonathan Majors is innocent of these charges, that Grace Jabbari was not injured by him at all, and that Mr. Majors is the real victim of several crimes perpetrated by Ms. Jabbari,” the filing states, claiming Majors has been denied his right to a speedy trial.
“In fact, the NYPD has determined there is probable cause to arrest Grace Jabbari for the crimes she committed against Mr. Majors,” the document continues with language heard before in this case. “But rather than dismiss false charges against an innocent black man, the People instead have willfully withheld evidence of his innocence, buried evidence proving that his white accuser is lying, and interfered with the NYPD’s attempts to investigate and arrest Ms. Jabbari.”
Friday’s hearing also comes one day after a video started circulating online of Majors breaking up a high school fight in Hollywood.
Appearing on TMZ and others, the footage from September 11 depicted the hat wearing Creed III star apparently rushing in to get between two girls who had been throwing punches at each other. Majors was said to just have happened to be nearby picking up some fast food at the time.
Still a seemingly major part of the October 6 premiering second season of Loki, the actor has seen his once bright profile dim since his arrest.
Dropped both management company, Entertainment 360, and publicist, The Lede Company in April. Various ad campaigns featuring the WME-repped Majors, such as one for the Texas Rangers MLB team were also ended. As numerous roles dried up for Majors in the aftermath of the charges this spring, the likelihood for an Oscar campaign from Searchlight Pictures for his acclaimed performance in the Sundance debuting Magazine Dreams looks more and more of a non-starter.