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Jonathan Majors avoids jail time in assault and harassment sentencing

Actor Jonathan Majors arriving in court for his sentencing Monday morning in Manhattan, accompanied by his current partner, Meagan Good.
David Dee Delgado
/
Getty Images
Actor Jonathan Majors arriving in court for his sentencing Monday morning in Manhattan, accompanied by his current partner, Meagan Good.

Actor Jonathan Majors, whose once-soaring career crashed after a New York jury found him guilty of assaulting and harassing his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, has been sentenced to 52 weeks of a domestic violence intervention program and probation. He will avoid serving jail time.

The judgment came Monday morning in a New York criminal courtroom in lower Manhattan. Judge Michael Gaffey issued a protection order for Jabbari and stipulated that Majors must continue attending therapy, but also said that "jail is not necessary" for the actor.

In December, Majors was found guilty on two misdemeanor charges in a domestic violence case — assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree — relating to a March 2023 argument with his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. During the same trial, the jury found Majors not guilty of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree, indicating that they did not believe Majors went into the situation intending to hurt Jabbari.

Jabbari attended court and read a victim impact statement Monday, in which she said: "He is not sorry. He has not accepted responsibility. He will do this again."

Within minutes of the guilty verdict in December, Marvel and Disney, which had been priming audiences to expect a major upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film starring Majors, dropped the actor.

Majors' court battles will continue past this sentencing: Last month, Jabbari filed a civil suit against Majors for assault, battery and defamation. In addition to the New York incident that led to Majors' conviction, Jabbari alleges that he was physically violent towards her during previous incidents in Los Angeles and London as well. After that suit was filed, Majors' attorney, Priya Chaudhry, told NPR that the actor was preparing counterclaims against Jabbari.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.