Jonathan Majors was sentenced to participate in a domestic violence treatment program this morning by a New York judge. The one-year in person batterers intervention program will be in LA, where Majors is based. Present in Judge Michael Gaffey’s Manhattan courtroom Monday, Majors could have faced up to a year of jail time for his conviction on December 18 on two misdemeanor counts of reckless assault and harassment against Grace Jabbari. After a three-week trial late last year and several days of deliberations, the one-time Marvel actor was convicted by the jury of three men and three women.
Up against a total of four misdemeanor charges, Majors, who pleaded not guilty, was not convicted by the jurors of intentional assault in the third degree and of aggravated harassment in the second degree against then-girlfriend Jabbari. Though present every day, often with a Bible before him and Harlem actress Meagan Good accompanying him, Majors did not testify at his trial.
Last week, Majors lost a Hail Mary effort to have the assault and harassment conviction overturned or to receive a new trial. Like Majors, Jabbari was in court Monday when sentencing was handed down. Before sentencing, the British dancer read out a victim impact statement. He will do this again, Jabbari said of Majors, who was seated just a few feet away from her. This is a man who thinks he is above the law, she added.
With his career decimated since his arrest in March 2023, the Creed III star is also currently facing a defamation suit filed by Jabbari. Almost right after Jabbari filed her complaint in late March, Majors’ primary lawyer Priya Chaudhry has sworn that counterclaims are coming. Yet, as of today, no such counterclaims have appeared on any court docket. Jabbari’s defamation case is filled with additional allegations of abuse against Majors that were originally kept out of the criminal case record by Judge Gaffey. Initially, the judge ruled the material too inflammatory to allow Majors to receive a fair trial. However, in no small part due to the defense itself, he later reversed portions of that sealing ruling so Jabbari could effectively respond to questioning on the stand.
Monday’s sentence ended a yearlong downward spiral for Majors that began with the actor’s arrest by New York City police on March 25, 2023, for domestic violence. The arrest came just hours after an argument between the actor and Jabbari turned physical inside their chauffeured car late at night in downtown Manhattan.
Instead of negotiating a plea on the lesser, non-felony charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Majors and his lawyer Chaudhry took the risky step of going to trial in the misdemeanor case. If the maneuver was a bid to secure a not-guilty verdict and salvage the actor’s career, which had begun to implode in the days after his arrest as his PR firm and management dropped him in quick succession, it was a failure.
Majors has become more public in recent months, showing up at the AAFCA Special Achievement Awards in early March, with more allegations of abuse emerging from other women describing very similar behavior to what Jabbari has expressed and the New York jury decided on.
