MANHATTAN (CN) — Jonathan Majors will sit for a criminal trial in New York City next month, a state Supreme Court judge ruled Wednesday morning, denying the “Creed III” actor’s bid to throw out the domestic assault charges on speedy trial grounds.
“I am denying the defense's motion to dismiss," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Gaffey said on Wednesday morning. He set a Nov. 29 trial date for the actor’s trial on domestic violence charges.
New York City Police Department officers arrested Majors after responding to a 911 call for an alleged domestic dispute at an apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.
The breakout star of the 2019 drama “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” faces up to a year in jail if convicted on the misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment.
Defense lawyers Priya Chaudhry and Seth Zuckerman tried to have the case thrown out on a technicality, citing a violation of Majors' right to a speedy trial under the state of New York Criminal Procedure Law Section 30.30, which was enacted to prevent prosecutors from unnecessarily delaying proceedings.
For Class A misdemeanors, prosecutors in New York must be ready for a trial in 90 days; in denying the motion to dismiss on Wednesday, Judge Gaffey counted 71 days had been “charged to the People,” referring to the prosecutors handling Majors’ case.
Majors attended the hearing via teleconference, appearing on a large flat screen monitor facing the judge.
He has pleaded not guilty to counts of misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault and harassment.
According to the indictment, Majors pulled his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari's finger, twisted her arm behind her back, struck and cut her ear and pushed her into a taxi, causing her to fall backward, during a March confrontation in New York City.
Jabbari was treated at a hospital for minor head and neck injuries, police said.
Majors, 34, was dropped by his management company and public relations firm in the wake of the charges.
He was scheduled to film multiple films in Marvel’s blockbuster “Avengers” franchise after making his Marvel Comics Universe debut earlier this year as the villain Kang the Conqueror in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Chaudhry, a famed criminal defense lawyer, has said she provided prosecutors with video evidence showing the Marvel star was the in fact the victim of Jabbari’s attack, not the other way around.
In September, Majors’ lawyers wrote in a court filing that the prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence in the case.
Chaudry’s previous high-profile clients include “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah and convicted rapist film director Paul Haggis.
Shah pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a telemarketing scheme that preyed upon the elderly, and is currently serving out prison sentence of six and a half years.
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