Shia LaBeouf cleared to travel to Rome for father’s baptism days after court denial | Shia LaBeouf

Shia LaBeouf ultimately did get permission to travel to his father’s baptism in Rome, days after the New Orleans courthouse handling the actor’s recent battery arrest initially denied his request to make the trip.

LaBeouf, 39, first sought authorization to travel to the Italian capital while out on bond at a court hearing on 26 February, during which state judge Simone Levine ordered him to enroll in substance abuse treatment. A court filing associated with the request said the trip would last from 1 to 8 March and was planned “for religious purposes, including his father’s baptism”.

Levine turned down LaBeouf that day, largely because there was no travel itinerary included with the request at the time. Then, on 4 March, LaBeouf’s attorney, Sarah Chervinsky, asked magistrate Peter Hamilton in another section of the same courthouse that he allow her client to travel to Italy for a week beginning on Wednesday.

Hamilton granted it, according to court records. This time, the request came with a travel itinerary, multiple officials with knowledge of the matter said.

Chervinsky did not respond when given an opportunity to comment. But she indicated in filings that she had the address where LaBeouf had arranged to stay and would share it with the court and prosecutors “upon request”.

The turnabout concerning LaBeouf’s trip came amid public scrutiny over whether New Orleans’ criminal justice system is treating the Transformers film franchise star as it would any other defendant it encounters.

It is not unusual for defendants to gain permission to travel out of town while on bond. However, LaBeouf originally had been ordered released from custody without being required to post bond within hours of his arrest on 17 February, which was the Mardi Gras holiday in New Orleans – and a time when such releases typically do not happen that quickly.

LaBeouf subsequently was required to put up $105,000 in bonds after allegations that he hurled homophobic slurs during his arrest became part of the court record. Levine ordered the bulk of that amount at the 26 February hearing in her courtroom.

Police booked LaBeouf on counts of misdemeanor battery after he allegedly punched two men and head-butted a third at about 12.45am on Mardi Gras at the R Bar in New Orleans’ Marigny neighborhood.

He had been asked to leave the establishment after becoming increasingly aggressive and aimed anti-gay slurs at the alleged victims, officers maintained 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.

One of the alleged victims identifies as queer and another dresses in drag. The latter of those men has spoken openly about his hope that prosecutors pursue formal hate crime charges against LaBeouf, under a state law which allows for enhanced penalties against anyone who victimizes others based on the “actual or perceived” basis of sex or gender, among other categories.

LaBeouf has since given an interview to the YouTube outlet Channel 5 in which he cited his “traditional Catholic” faith and asserted “big gay people are scary” to him.

In that conversation, recorded at a home of his in New Orleans, he also maintained that the violence in connection with his arrest unfolded after “three gay dudes [were] next to me, touching my leg”.

“I [got] scared,” said LaBeouf, who has had numerous prior brushes with the US court system and faced previous accusations of homophobia.

“I’m sorry – if that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”