'Empire' Actor Bryshere Gray Charged With Assault & Battery

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Actor Bryshere Gray has found himself in some legal hot water after a troubling weekend in Virginia. 

TMZ reports that the Empire actor is charged with one misdemeanor count of assault and battery. 

The incident happened on Friday, and a “private citizen” had an altercation with Gray and then filed charges against him, because in Virginia, you can bypass the police and go straight to the magistrate’s office for misdemeanor cases.

He was charged on Friday, arrested on Sunday, and bonded out after. He is now due back in court on Wednesday for his arraignment. 

Local news station WAVY TV 10 dug deeper to find out more about the alleged victim, discovering that his name is Dustin Wilkins, but he goes by the name Chosen and is a business partner of Gray. In the misdemeanor arrest warrant, Wilkins claims that the two of them got into an argument at a hotel over money, which later led to Gray going after him. 

“As I was explaining to him that he can’t just leave without paying, adding that you have enough problems…I am trying to save your life. He then charged towards me from around the car,” Wilkins’ account on the arrest warrant states. “Charged into me with his shoulder…and fighting me as I was recording the incident over the phone…a blunt blow into me and punching me.”

Wilkins just wants to help his friend through this rough time, and even aided him in securing a bond, blaming his troubling actions on unresolved mental health issues. 

He continues, “Something took place in a mental health aspect. I cannot disclose what happened; I cannot disclose the details of that. All I can tell you is Bryshere is a friend, he’s like my brother. He is just someone who is dealing with some very interesting mental health issues.”

Wilkins adds that jail isn’t a proper punishment for Gray, and some sort of mental health treatment would be more beneficial.

Gray says that Wilkins had been stalking him for a month since he told him he no longer wanted to create a television show with him, which had ruined their relationship.

This is only the latest legal issue for Gray, as he was arrested in 2021 for assaulting his wife following a tense stand-off with SWAT at his Arizona home. After pleading guilty to felony aggravated assault, he served 10 days in jail and was sentenced to three years of probation.

But in 2022, he was arrested for violating that probation after failing to tell his probation officer about run-ins he’d had with police recently, including throwing a box of food and pulling the hair of a woman he’d been dating.

See social media’s reaction to Gray’s legal issues below.

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