The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that the parents of 18-year-old Tokata Iron Eyes were granted a protective order against actor Ezra Miller, but law enforcement has been unable to locate the actor. Miller has yet to be served the papers, which accuses them of “physically and emotionally abusing” the teen. The Times’s report also uses the term “grooming.”
Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle had their interim order of protection for their daughter approved by a judge from the Standing Rock Sioux tribal court in North Dakota last week. The parents accuse the Justice League and We Need To Talk About Kevin star of “psychologically manipulating, physically intimidating and endangering the safety and welfare of” their child, who has begun using the name Gibson and, like Miller, uses they/them pronouns.
The order would bar Miller from “contacting or harassing” the 18-year-old or their parents, and also would force them to stay 100 yards away from the family residence prior to a July 12 hearing. The court will grant the “relief requested” in the restraining order if Miller does not make an appearance at the hearing.
However, Miller’s current whereabouts are unknown. “They move around so much [that] we’re stuck in this legal limbo situation, and we can’t serve them in any place they’re in long enough,” Chase Iron Eyes, an attorney and activist, told the newspaper. “They’ve been flighty. They’ve been avoiding service, and now there’s public pressure mounting on them to make a decision, which makes us very concerned about Ezra’s volatile nature.”
While Tokata/Gibson, who is believed to be with Miller at this time, is 18, tribal regulations still consider the parents as legal guardians. The Times reported that the parents have made multiple previous attempts to serve documents in Vermont, where Miller has a residence, and in California. When making a wellness check in California this May, Sara Jumping Eagle alleged that Miller assaulted her. (She filed an incident report at the time.)
In an interview with People, Sara says she has only spoken with her daughter three times since February, and felt “monitored” or was “interrupted” by Miller. She added that Tokata/Gibson sounded “robotic” over the phone, and said, “our daughter's basically brainwashed.”
Miller and Iron Eyes first met when he was 23 and she was 12, at the Standing Rock Reservation during the 2016 political action to stop the Dakota pipeline. The court documents the family filed allege that Miller exhibited behavior in a “pattern of corrupting a minor,” that they “took an immediate and apparently innocent liking to Tokata Iron Eyes,” and displayed “cult-like and psychologically manipulative, controlling behavior.”The family also charges that Miller gave Tokata alcohol, marijuana, and LSD, and flew her to places like New York, California, London, Vermont, and Hawaii. In April, Miller was arrested twice in Hawaii for second-degree assault and for disorderly conduct.
On Thursday, Tokata/Gibson uploaded a video to Instagram, in which they said, after a lengthy build-up, “This is my life. These are my decisions. And I'm disappointed in my parents and the press in every way.”Recent previous uploads made a jokey comment about being “on the loose,” and another referred to Ezra Miller as her “comrade” while calling her parents “manipulative” and her father’s allegations “transphobic.”
Warner Bros. is still scheduled to release The Flash, in which Miller plays the leading role, in June 2023. Filming ended in October 2021, but COVID-19 postponed its bow. At the Oscars earlier this year, Miller's Flash character “entering the Speed Force” in Zack Snyder's Justice League won the top “cheer-worthy moment” prize, beating out The Matrix, other superhero movies, and also Showgirls. Two reports suggest that this and another poll decided upon by fans were manipulated by bots.
