Jonathan Majors accused of assaulting ex-girlfriend

Marvel actor Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari turned herself in to New York police Wednesday night and was arrested on charges of assault and criminal mischief, a police spokesperson said. Jabbari was arrested at Manhattan’s 10th Precinct seven months after a domestic altercation between her and Majors. Both charges are misdemeanors, and she was released with a desk appearance ticket, police said. Majors was arrested in March and accused of assaulting Jabbari. Jabbari’s attorney for comment did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Thursday it would not be prosecuting the case ‘because it lacks prosecutorial merit.’ ‘The matter is now closed and sealed,’ a spokesperson said. The district attorney’s office said in a court filing this week that it ‘would decline to prosecute any charges brought by the NYPD against Ms. Jabbari related to the belated allegations made by defendant [Majors] regarding the incident on March 25, 2024.’ The filing effectively means Jabbari ultimately will not be prosecuted for any crime in the case. Hours before Jabbari’s arrest, a judge denied a motion to dismiss the assault case against Majors and set a trial date for Nov. 29. Priya Chaudhry, Majors’ attorney, has maintained her client’s innocence and said he was, in fact, the one who was assaulted. At the time of Majors’ arrest, police said Jabbari had ‘sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition’ after an altercation with Majors in a taxi. Jabbari and Majors had been dating for several years before the incident. Majors, a California native and graduate of Yale, had a meteoric rise in Hollywood before the allegations. He had starred in “Creed III,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the critically acclaimed 2019 independent film “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” He is also starring in the coming Marvel film “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.”

An Arrest and Charges

An ex-girlfriend who accused actor Jonathan Majors of assaulting her in March was arrested in New York City Wednesday night, her attorney Ross Kramer confirmed to USA TODAY Thursday. Grace Jabbari, who is British, was arrested on two misdemeanor charges, according to Kramer. ‘We are disappointed that Ms. Jabbari had to face an arrest that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office already determined was unwarranted,’ Kramer said in a statement. ‘The DA’s Office carefully reviewed all the facts of the case and concluded that Ms. Jabbari was the victim, and not the perpetrator. Before we walked into the police precinct, the DA’s Office made clear that they would not be charging Ms. Jabbari with any offense.’ Her attorney added: ‘It is unfortunate and re-traumatizing when a survivor of intimate partner violence is forced to endure an arrest, but Ms. Jabbari is an extremely strong and resilient person who is determined to move forward.’ The dancer and movement coach was charged with suspicion of misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor criminal mischief, according to The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter. She was released soon after on a desk appearance ticket, which is a notice to appear in court at a later date. ‘The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has officially declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit. The matter is now closed and sealed,’ the district attorney’s office said in a statement to USA TODAY Thursday. Jabbari’s arrest comes more than three months after Majors filed a cross-complaint against her in June, leading the NYPD to open an investigation, and seven months after he was taken into custody following Jabbari’s 911 call after an alleged domestic dispute. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has said it ‘would decline to prosecute Ms. Jabbari if she were arrested,’ according to an Oct. 13 document from the district attorney’s office responding to Majors’ motion to dismiss charges, which was obtained by USA TODAY Wednesday.

Legal Proceedings and Allegations

On the eve of Marvel actor Jonathan Majors’ next court hearing on charges of assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter told NBC News on Tuesday that police had talked with prosecutors about charging her with domestic assault. However, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in court filings that any discussion was over and has been since the matter came up in September. ‘On September 8, 2024, and September 12, 2024, the prosecution informed the NYPD that the People would decline to prosecute any charges brought by the NYPD against Ms. Jabbari related to the belated allegations made by defendant [Majors] regarding the incident on March 25, 2024,’ the filing says. The filing says that Jabbari’s attorney was informed on September 21st by the Manhattan D.A.’s office that they would not prosecute any NYPD charges against Jabbari. The filing effectively means that Jabbari will ultimately not be prosecuted for any crime in this case. Members of the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the New York Police Department were weighing a case against Jabbari charging third-degree domestic assault, a misdemeanor, the law enforcement official said, as was first reported by The Messenger. The official added that the timing of charges and whether Jabbari would surrender to authorities were not immediately clear. The news comes just hours before Majors’ next court hearing related to his March arrest for allegedly assaulting Jabbari. At the time, the actor was charged with misdemeanor assault. Majors’ attorney Priya Chaudhry has maintained her client’s innocence and stated that Majors was, in fact, the one who was assaulted. Majors is not expected to attend Wednesday’s hearing, a source says. Jabbari and Majors’ attorneys were not immediately available for comment.

Criminal Trial and Testimonies

Opening statements began on Monday in the criminal trial against actor Jonathan Majors, who has been accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He arrived at New York City Criminal Court around 9:30 a.m. wearing a long coat and beret. Majors entered the lower Manhattan courtroom at 10:05 a.m. with a Bible in hand. He greeted friends and family in attendance, including his new partner Meagan Good, with a kiss on the cheek. Majors, who has appeared in blockbusters like Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Creed III,” was arrested on March 25 after an alleged domestic dispute in Manhattan with his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. The actor, who has pleaded not guilty, faces three remaining charges of misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment and harassment; another charge of strangulation has been dropped. He faces up to a year in jail if he’s convicted. Prosecutor Michael Perez began by offering details on the events that led to Majors’ arrest. On March 25, Majors and Jabbari took a private car service after midnight from a Brooklyn party to their Chelsea apartment. The prosecutor said the couple, who met in 2021 on the set of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” had been together for two years and had discussed marriage and kids. ‘This was a serious relationship,’ Perez told jurors. On the night of the incident, Jabbari saw a text message on Majors’ phone from a woman named Cleopatra that read, ‘Wish I was kissing you right now.’ Jabbari allegedly took the phone out of his hands to see who sent the message. Perez asserted that Majors then began grabbing the right side of Jabbari’s body and prying her finger off the phone to retrieve it. The prosecutor said this caused bruising, swelling and substantial pain. ‘He intended to cause Grace Jabbari physical injury and, in fact, he did cause her physical injury,’ Perez asserted. Majors does not deny that a text message from another woman sparked the alleged altercation. But Majors’ criminal defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry alleges that it was Jabbari who assaulted Majors, ripping two buttons off his coat and tearing the pocket ‘with her bare hands’ — and not the other way around. After they parted ways that night, Jabbari ran into three strangers on the street, who invited her to go to a club. She went to ‘block out the experience,’ Perez, the prosecutor, told jurors. Meanwhile, Majors had checked into a hotel room and ended their relationship through a text message. Jabbari later returned to Majors’ apartment and called him multiple times – 32, according to Chaudhry – before taking two sleeping pills. He went back to the Chelsea residence the following morning, where he allegedly found Jabbari on the floor of the closet. Chaudhry told jurors that Majors called the police ‘out of concern’ for Jabbari’s mental state because she was unconscious and had, in text messages, threatened suicide. Jabbari was initially hesitant but eventually told officers that she had sustained injuries from Majors, who was subsequently arrested. She was taken to the hospital to receive treatment for wounds. Months later, Jabbari was arrested on Oct. 26 and charged with assault and criminal mischief in connection to the March incident. But the Manhattan District Attorney’s office ‘declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit.’ Judge Michael Gaffey ruled on Thursday the defense can bring up Jabbari’s arrest during the trial. The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, will include testimony from Jabbari and potentially the driver of the private vehicle where the alleged altercation took place, a medical professional and the three strangers that Jabbari met on the street. Prior to the night in question, Perez alleges the ‘honeymoon period’ of Majors and Jabbari’s partnership was waning and ‘things began to sour.’ Months into the relationship, he continued, ‘the defendant’s true self began to show. ‘He began to snap at, manipulate and strategically withhold affection from [Jabbari].’ Majors had threatened suicide to ‘control her actions’ in the past, according to Perez. ‘This affected their entire relationship and how she reacted on March 25,’ the prosecutor said. Chaudhry told jurors the relationship history of Majors and Jabbari had ‘nothing to do with what happened in the car.’ The defense argued that Majors’ Hollywood career had been on the rise before the arrest. The Emmy-nominated actor appeared in two 2024 blockbusters, as well as the indie ‘Magazine Dreams,’ which was acquired by Searchlight Pictures at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The studio removed the project from its release schedule in the wake of the allegations. As part of the fallout, he’s been dropped by his PR team and management and cut from the film ‘The Man in My Basement.’ Majors still has a major role, as the villainous Kang the Conqueror, in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. ‘Mr. Majors’ lifetime of hard work was coming to fruition and his career seemed unstoppable until […] he ended his relationship with Jabbari and she made these false allegations,’ Chaudhry said. ‘[This is] a man who spent 30 years working hard to get to where he was on March 25. A man with the world at his fingertips.’ The defense concluded its opening statement by saying, ‘This is a case about the end of a relationship, not about a crime… at least not one that Mr. Majors committed. In revenge, she made these false allegations to ruin Mr. Majors and take away everything he spent his life working for.’ Majors’ lawyer urged the jury: ‘End this nightmare for him.’

Charges Dropped and Legal Fallout

Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday dropped all charges against a woman who accused the movie star Jonathan Majors of assault, less than a day after she was arrested by New York City police following his allegation that she initiated the physical confrontation. Grace Jabbari was briefly put under arrest at a New York City police station Wednesday evening and charged with misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief. She and Majors, her ex-boyfriend, have accused each other of battery during an argument in a car ride earlier this year. Jabbari was given a court summons and released. By the morning, the case against Jabbari was already over. ‘The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has officially declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit. The matter is now closed and sealed,’ said Doug Cohen, a press secretary for the prosecutor’s office. Majors, a fast-rising Hollywood star, still faces criminal charges that led to his arrest last March. The actor is accused of pulling Jabbari’s finger, twisting her arm behind her back, striking and cutting her ear and pushing her into a vehicle, leaving her with a broken finger and bruises. Attorneys for Majors maintain that Jabbari was the aggressor during the fight, which began after Jabbari saw a text message on Majors phone that said, ‘Wish I was kissing you right now,’ and tried to snatch the devices from his hands to see who sent it. Her arrest on Wednesday came three months after police opened an investigation into Jabbari based on a cross complaint filed by Majors. In a court filing earlier this month, prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office said they ‘would decline to prosecute any charges brought by the NYPD against Ms. Jabbari related to the belated allegations’ made by Majors. They said they had informed police of that decision on two separate occasions. Ross Kramer, an attorney for Jabbari, described the NYPD’s decision to bring charges against Jabbari as ‘unfortunate and re-traumatizing.’ The Manhattan district attorney’s office had ‘carefully reviewed all the facts of the case and concluded that Ms. Jabbari was the victim, and not the perpetrator,’ the statement added. An attorney for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, declined to comment. She has previously said that she provided the Manhattan district attorney with ‘irrefutable evidence that the woman is lying, including video proof showing nothing happened, especially not where she claimed.’ But in their October 13th memo, prosecutors pointed to ‘concerning’ discrepancies in the evidence handed over by Chaudhry. In one case, prosecutors said, a witness who was quoted as watching Majors ‘gently’ place Jabbari in the car after she slapped him told prosecutors that he had never written the statement and believed it to be false. The memo also outlines the cooperation between NYPD detectives and Majors’ attorney. A wanted flier for Jabbari, for example, included a photograph that the defense had provided to the NYPD. Majors had quickly ascended to Hollywood stardom in recent years, with major roles in ‘Creed III’ and ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’ following his 2019 breakthrough in ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco.’ In the wake of his arrest, the U.S. Army pulled TV commercials narrated by Majors, saying it was ‘deeply concerned’ by the allegations. His upcoming Marvel film ‘Avengers: Kang Dynasty’ was postponed by Disney, while the theatrical release of his recent Sundance Film Festival entry ‘Magazine Dreams’ remains up in the air. His trial is set to begin on November 29th.