14 DAY TRIAL // More details into Jake Lloyd’s recent arrest have emerged online: the former “Star Wars” star, who played Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” is suffering from schizophrenia and was off his meds at the end of March.
Also then, he attacked his mother, with the incident requiring a visit from the police. However, his mother refused to press charges, telling the officers that Jake wasn’t violent by nature, TMZ has learned.
Jake Lloyd was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 19
The 26-year-old was diagnosed as a schizophrenic when he was 19, and has been following treatment ever since, his mother Lisa says for the celebrity publication.
He is not violent by nature, so when he came over to her house on March 26 and attacked her, she knew something was wrong.
According to the police report by the Indianopolis Metro Police Department, he went over to accuse her of “ruining” his life. Lisa refused to let him inside the house, so he “knocked her down and stomped on her three or four times, causing abrasions and bruising on her arm.”
She refused to press charges when the police arrived, telling them that he had been off his medication, which caused him to act out in such a violent manner.
TMZ doesn’t say, but chances are Lloyd was still not taking his meds at the time he engaged several police units in a cross-county chase last weekend.
He was booked for reckless driving, failure to stop, resisting arrest and driving without a license, as per the same media outlet. As of the time the report came out, he was still in police custody.
Video of the chase has emerged online as well (see below). The chase started in Charleston, South Carolina, and ended in another county after Lloyd went through a fence and smashed into trees.
Fame came too soon for Lloyd
“The Phantom Menace” doesn’t rank the highest on Star Wars fans’ list of preferences, so naturally, some of the backlash against the movie blew back on Lloyd.
Publicly, he disowned the movie that made him a star and accused George Lucas of ruining his life by casting him in it at the age of 8, especially when he wasn’t able to deliver a movie experience up to the standards of the fans.
However, that didn’t stop him from doing 5 “Star Wars” games and from attending conventions, where he would ask for money in exchange of autographs and photo sessions.