Posted on: January 10, 2024, 01:04h.
Last updated on: January 10, 2024, 01:13h.
Criss Angel helped make a fan disappear from his “Mindfreak” show in Las Vegas on December 29, according to an arrest report from local police. And now that fan claims that the illusionist assaulted him.
Branden McDonald, 31, was arrested on suspicion of battery for allegedly punching the security guard who wrestled him to the ground before walking him out to the lobby along with Angel.
According to the report, the Ontario, Canada resident was spotted by security using his cellphone during the performance, which is prohibited, and he didn’t respond to multiple requests to stop.
Once Angel began walking back into the theater, according to the security guard, McDonald clapped his hands and leaned forward aggressively toward Angel. At this point, the guard lifted McDonald off his feet, carried him out of the lobby, and performed a citizen’s arrest.
What Doesn’t Appear in the Report …
In a new allegation that appears nowhere in the arrest report, McDonald’s attorney, Adam Solinger, told Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff Burbank that, before police arrived, Angel allegedly told McDonald, “I’m going to choke you.”
Then, from behind, according to Solinger, Angel “wraps his arm around his neck and starts choking him.”
Solinger told the R-J that his client suffered a sore throat from Angel’s alleged aggression, and a head injury from “being slammed down by security,” and that they are “looking at all our options, criminal and civil at this point.”
According to Solinger, McDonald punched no one and was “texting his ailing mother” when the security guard approached and allegedly attacked him.
McDonald was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a count of misdemeanor battery. A hearing is set for March 5 in Regional Justice Court.
