Adam Levine Sugar Bombed
"Your sugar. Yes, please. Won't you come and put it down on me?" Maroon 5's Sugar.
Well, Adam Levine got what he asked for. While signing autographs outside the Jimmy Kimmel Show studios where he had just performed Maroon 5's song Sugar, Levine was attacked with, you guessed it, sugar! Actually, powdered sugar.
The crooner was not happy with the sugar bomb. The attacker was quickly tackled and arrested.
The Attacker
The attacker, Navid Farsi, was charged with battery and held on $100,000 bail.
While $100,000 bail seems high for a seemingly harmless attack, it is appropriate because Mr. Farsi is a serial attacker. Just recently, Farsi threw a rock at Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. (Adam Levine got off easy with nice, soft, powdery sugar.) In addition to The Rock and Levine, Farsi recently attacked three other people, and has five pending charges against him.
Battery
In California, battery is "any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another," punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Intent
For an action to be battery, it must be willful, or in other words, intentional. This doesn't mean that the actor must intend to make contact with the victim. The actor need only intend to do the action for it to be battery. For example, I swing a bat at you to scare you, but I never intended to bonk you on the head. However, you don't back away fast enough, and the bat accidentally hits you. Even though the contact was accidental, my action of swinging the bat at you was intentional. I would be guilty of battery.
Additional Charges?
Some reports mentioned that Levine was not the only person hit with sugar during the attack. Several close-by fans were also dusted with the powder.
Remember how I said intent to hit the person doesn't matter? Well, intent to hit a specific person doesn't matter either. When an actor intends to hit one person but accidentally hits another, the intent is transferred. So, regardless of who Farsi's intended victims was, he could technically be guilty of battery against the bystanders too.
However, as of now, it looks like he's only been charged with one count of battery against Levine. I hope he has a good defense lawyer. He's definitely going to need one
Related Resources:
- Man arrested after 'sugar-bombing' Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine (The Los Angeles Times)
- Kim Kardashian Flour Bombed As Protesters Step Up Assaults (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- Dave Chappelle Pelted with Banana Peel; Should He Sue? (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- 'Scandal's' Columbus Short Arrested for Felony Battery (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)