On So You Think You Can Dance’s first live show this week, it was announced that Joshua Allen, a former SYTYCD winner and would-be mentor on the current Next Generation season, had left the show. Host Cat Deeley delivered the news that Allen, the show’s season four winner and current “All-Star,†would no longer be participating on the show, but no reason was given. It’s now known that Allen is facing domestic-violence charges for allegedly attacking his girlfriend on more than one occasion. D.A. Jackie Lacey’s office said that Allen “faces two felony counts of willfully injuring a girlfriend after a prior conviction and one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, a glass vase,†according to Deadline.
The incident apparently occurred last month when Allen reportedly chased his girlfriend into a coffee shop, throwing the glass vase at a bystander who tried to intervene. There was also another incident in April wherein Allen allegedly tried to strangle his girlfriend. Allen has also been charged with two misdemeanor counts for disobeying a domestic-relations criminal-protective order with his girlfriend (which resulted from the aforementioned previous conviction), as well as misdemeanor charges of simple battery and vandalism under $400. If found guilty of the charges, Allen faces more than ten years in prison. No one from So You Think You Can Dance has confirmed Allen’s domestic-violence charges as the reason for his departure.