Assault charges against Lindsay Lohan's alleged attacker, Christian LaBella, have been dropped, but the legal battle continues. Both Lohan and LaBella have filed harassment complaints against each other in the wake of the bizarre incident.
It all began when LaBella met Lohan at 1 Oak in Chelsea and brought him back to her room at Manhattan's W Hotel early Sunday morning, according to NBC New York. The actress told police that is where LaBella had allegedly assaulted her after she confronted him about photographs he took of her with his cell phone. The "Mean Girls" actress said that after she took away the 25-year-old man's phone, he threw her down on the bed, scratching her. When she left the room and returned later, he reportedly choked her from behind and threw her on the floor.
LaBella was initially charged Sunday afternoon with assault and harassment. However, on Monday, charges against him had been dropped, according to CNN.
"Cross complaints for harassment were filed and LaBella's assault arrest was voided after detectives investigated further," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told the news network.
LaBella, originally from Valley Village, Calif., has worked as a legislative aide for Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) since May, according to information listed on the congressional resource service Legistorm.com and reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The office of Shimkus sent a statement to the LA Times regarding the Lohan-LaBella assault case:
While no one from Congressman Shimkus’ office has been contacted by Mr. LaBella following his arrest, he has been an employee in the Congressman’s Washington office. Obviously, the congressman does not condone his actions. As this is a legal matter for Mr. LaBella, [neither] the congressman nor his office will make further comment.
His uncle spoke with the New York Daily News, calling LaBella "a good kid" and criticizing Lohan for her handling of the situation.
“It’s shameful that a celebrity with a personal publicist can persecute a nice guy like Christian,” LaBella’s uncle, Peter Jessop, told the Daily News. “He’s a decent kid who met her at a nightclub and she invited him back to her hotel room with other people. And now she’s using her celebrity to launch a full-scale witch hunt against him just to be relevant again.”
This is the second run-in with the NYPD Lohan has had in less than two weeks. On Sept. 19, she was arrested after she reportedly tapped a pedestrian with her Porsche in a driveway between the Maritime and Dream hotels in Chelsea and fled the scene.
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