A Nashville court has dropped all the domestic violence charges against Mikaela Spielberg, the daughter of famed director Steven Spielberg.
This past March, weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mikaela was arrested for the charge of domestic assault, a misdemeanor, during an altercation with her ex-fiance Chuck Penkow. At the time, Pankow said that nobody got hurt and that the incident resulting in Mikaela’s arrest was “a misunderstanding.” She was released after a 12-hour hold on a $1,000 bond.
According to Fox News, Howard Gentry Criminal dismissed the charges against Mikaela on Sept. 1.
“I feel that dropping the case was exactly right, which is to start to engage in restorative justice,” Spielberg told Fox News. “I just want to feel safe again. I was innocent.”
“I’m not bitter about it. I’m traumatized,” she added. “I feel like the frequency of which I was checked on during that time period was not enough. I feel like my community didn’t reach out enough to ask me what was going on. I’m deeply, deeply concerned, fearful and traumatized now that this is over.”
Mikaela emphasized that she is not malicious, saying, “I feel better that the state was willing to meet me halfway and use restorative justice in this situation. I’m not a malicious person or a person looking to do evil when I step into the world. When can we start to see the people that we rope into the justice system as real humans? At the end of the day, I’m a whole person.”
Speaking with The Sun in February, Mikaela, a.k.a. “Sugar Star,” said that she will be self-producing her own porn videos while obtaining a sex worker license in Tenessee. Initially, her parents, Steven and Kate, were reportedly “not upset” by the news but rather “intrigued.”
“My safety has always been a number one priority for them,” Mikaela said. “I’m doing this, not out of an urge to hurt anybody or be spiteful about it, I’m doing this because I want to honor my body in a way that’s lucrative.”
“I actually think that once they see how far I’ve come from the bottom I was at a year and a half ago, they’re going to look at this and go, ‘Wow, we actually raised a really self-assured young lady,’” added Mikaela.
However, a week later, sources close to the Spielberg family illustrated a slightly different picture, telling outlets that both Steven and Kate were “concerned” and “embarrassed” over Mikaela’s new career path despite their full support.
“As Mikaela said, Steven and Kate are nothing but supportive of her, as they are with all their children,” a family friend told Page Six. “Outwardly, Steven and Kate – who are the most evolved parents in the world and love their kids beyond all measure – have always been supportive of Mikaela and try to understand her. Obviously, though, they’re embarrassed by her sudden public admission of entry into the sex worker world.”
“Nothing can hurt Steven Spielberg’s immaculate reputation, nor Kate’s, but they’re worried about how [Mikaela’s revelation] looks for their other kids, who are trying to be supportive but who are also embarrassed,” the family friend added. “This certainly isn’t how they were raised.”
Related: Steven Spielberg’s Daughter Arrested For Domestic Violence After Announcing New Porn Career