Former Noughties heart-throb Didier Cohen is fighting to stay out of an American prison after being accused of breaking into his father’s Malibu home and assaulting him and his live-in girlfriend during a ‘drug-induced’ frenzy.
The former Australia’s Next Top Model judge, 40, was arrested on June 26 last year following the incident, then spent five months in a maximum-security jail before he was released on bail on November 6 to live in a ‘mental health diversion’ facility – where his lawyer is fighting for him to stay in lieu of a prison sentence.
The Daily Mail was present when Cohen attended a pre-trial hearing at Van Nuys Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, facing nine felony charges.
Cohen is alleged to have attacked his father David Cohen, 72, and his partner Avesta Saaty, 52, with a bottle and threatened to kill them – in what a source familiar with the situation tells the Mail was a ‘drug psychosis’.
Cohen – who was born in LA but made his name as a model and DJ in Australia after being discovered by a talent scout on Sunset Boulevard – has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If found guilty, he faces up to eight years in prison.
Judge Alan Schneider has scheduled another hearing on March 13 to rule whether the troubled star can stay in the rehab program that kept him out of jail over Christmas.
Noughties heart-throb Didier Cohen (pictured right, outside Van Nuys Courthouse on Wednesday with his mother, centre) is fighting to stay out of an American prison after being accused of breaking into his father’s Malibu home and assaulting him and his live-in girlfriend
Didier Cohen is best known Down Under for his appearance as a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model in 2013. Pictured from left: Cohen, Jennifer Hawkins, Alex Perry and Cheyenne Tozzi
This week, Daily Mail spoke with a source close to Cohen – who we understand now goes by the name ‘Meyer Love Moquin’ – who shed light on how his behaviour was allegedly altered by a hallucinogenic drug before the incident at his father’s house.
The source claimed Cohen went into a ‘drug-induced psychosis’ on or around June 18 and ‘realistically didn’t come out of it until July 2’, after his arrest.
‘This is a drug-induced fight between a father and his son in their private home. [The charges] just got completely out of control,’ they added.
A heavily tattooed Cohen wore a white shirt, black slacks and a tie as he fronted the criminal court alongside his mother this week.
According to an LA Superior Court criminal complaint document seen by the Daily Mail, some of the crimes Cohen is accused of ‘involved great violence, great bodily harm, threat of great bodily harm, and other acts disclosing a high degree of cruelty, viciousness and callousness’.
In count one of the charges he is facing, Cohen allegedly committed ‘first degree burglary’ at the $4million home his dad and Saaty share in ritzy Malibu ‘with the intent to commit larceny and any felony’.
In count two, Cohen – who prosecutors say was supposed to provide elder care for his father – allegedly committed ‘elder or dependent abuse’ by inflicting ‘unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering and, having the care and custody of said victim, wilfully caused and permitted him to be placed in a situation in which his health was endangered’.
In counts three and five, Cohen is accused of kidnapping his dad and Saaty ‘forcibly and by instilling fear’.
Cohen was born in LA but made his name as a model and DJ in Australia after being discovered by a talent scout on Sunset Boulevard. (He is pictured left during the Sydney Fashion Festival on August 25, 2011, and right outside Van Nuys Courthouse on Wednesday)
The sentences for the charges he’s facing range from two to eight years in prison, with kidnapping carrying the highest maximum penalty of eight years and a $10,000 fine. Cohen and his legal team hope to obtain a mental health diversion instead of prison time
Count four alleges Cohen assaulted his father ‘with a deadly weapon, to wit, a glass bottle’.
In count six, he’s charged with assaulting Saaty ‘by means of force likely to produce great bodily harm’.
Counts seven and eight accuse Cohen of making his father and Saaty afraid for their lives by issuing threats ‘to commit a crime that would result in death and great bodily injury’.
In the ninth and final count against him, Cohen is alleged to have ‘maliciously’ vandalised Saaty’s car.
The sentences for the charges he’s facing range from two to eight years in prison, with kidnapping carrying the highest maximum penalty of eight years and a $10,000 fine.
Meanwhile, a source claimed that the events that unfolded on the day he broke into his father’s house followed a series of calamities for Cohen in 2025, including the breakdown of his relationship with partner Isabela Aznar, which followed their home burning down during the LA wildfires that ripped through Pacific Palisades in January.
‘The reality of the situation is, his house burned down, and his relationship was falling apart at the same time,’ the source claimed.
Amid the turmoil, Cohen was gifted a vial of LSD by a friend on his 40th birthday in May. He didn’t take it at the time, but later consumed it to celebrate landing a job opportunity.
‘He had stopped drinking alcohol in 2016 and stopped doing any type of psychedelic drugs two years ago. He was just trying to show up as a good dad for his daughter,’ the source added.
Cohen shares four-year-old daughter Marigold with his ex-fiancée Chanel Wolf.
‘Meyer had another job opportunity. The meeting went well,’ the source added. ‘That weekend, he took a bunch of LSD to celebrate life going really good.
‘He intended to meditate and walk on the beach, but fell into a drug-induced psychosis. It lasted for 14 days, and when he came out of it, he was in jail.’
The source claimed Cohen only later learned what he had allegedly done through authorities and family members while appearing in court.
‘Apparently, Meyer thought they [David and Saaty] sold his dog and he kicked in the front door when they were home to find the dog,’ the source said of his drug-induced delusion.
Cohen last made headlines in January 2025 when he and his then-girlfriend, Isabela Aznar (pictured together), lost their Pacific Palisades home in the Los Angeles wildfires
He shared confronting photos online of the burning rubble of his property
‘During the drug-induced psychosis, he falsely believed his father was also trying to kill him. Meyer [wrongly] thought David had tried to kill his dog, too.
‘He and his father got into a physical altercation. That’s all he knows right now. The charges are all alleged.’
‘Meyer doesn’t have a history of violence. He loves his dad. He loves his dad’s girlfriend. They work together,’ the source added.
‘To have to deal with all of that is horrific for him. Now he’s in rehab even though he does not have a daily substance-abuse issue.’
On the subject of Cohen’s drug use, the source maintained he was not an addict, and that the psychosis was the result of casual recreational use.
‘A traumatic incident happened. A couple of traumatic incidents happened. Dealing with that and probably depression, and then wanting to use psychedelics to have a deeper connection to God… he wanted to try to use it from a therapeutic standpoint to get through the trauma – and it sent him into a psychosis,’ they explained.
‘He wasn’t sitting there just doing drugs every day. He is very lucid and he can communicate about it and understand the situation.’
Didier shares one child with his ex-fiancée Chanel Wolf, a daughter named Marigold Love Cohen, who was born in December 2021
After his arrest on June 26 last year, Cohen spent five months in jail before being released in November on $300,000 bail.
Prosecutors claimed at the time of his arrest that he was already ‘on probation, mandatory supervision, post-release community supervision and parole’.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Schneider allowed him to remain free on the same bail until the March 13 hearing when the judge will rule on a motion from Cohen’s lawyer for his client to remain in his mental health diversion program, which could save him from serving any more prison time if he keeps out of trouble.
Explaining the diversion program to Daily Mail, lawyer Charles Unger said that Cohen ‘would basically continue to live as he does now if the judge agrees to place him in mental health diversion’.
‘In place of being convicted and sentenced, Didier would have to agree to stay clean and comply with all the rules and conditions laid down by the judge for a set period, probably two years,’ Unger continued.
‘If he did comply with all those conditions and complete the diversion program, the charges against him would eventually be dismissed.
‘That’s the beautiful thing about the diversion program – instead of just incarcerating people, throwing them in prison, it gives them the help and support they really need.’
But he warned that if Cohen did not comply with all the diversion conditions, ‘he could be brought to court and sent to state prison for a very long time’.
The source Daily Mail spoke to praised the facility where Cohen had been residing since November, saying it had been ‘incredibly helpful’ for him after months in a maximum-security jail.
‘He says it’s incredible. It’s like a Jewish spirituality rehab. It’s very communal-based, it’s very mental health-based,’ they added.
‘Spirituality concepts, work, yoga, there are a lot of good things to it, and it’s like a very hard rehab.
‘Every single day, Meyer’s in nine to 10 hours of intense therapy, and he has three therapists.’
Cohen has also been receiving support from his mother and previous partner Chanel, both of whom ‘worked their a***s off’ to get him a good lawyer.
Cohen last made headlines in January last year when he and his girlfriend at the time, Isabela Aznar, lost their Pacific Palisades home in the Los Angeles fires.
He shared confronting photos online of the burning rubble of his property.
‘Our home burned down today. All of our belongings we’ve ever acquired in our lives are gone except for one suitcase each,’ the then-couple wrote.
‘We worked so hard – invested so much time, money, energy, and love into creating our dream home.
‘Intentionally building a fresh start together only to watch it all burn down after one month. A massive loss today.’
Aznar and Cohen have since split, with Aznar later revealing on Instagram that their relationship ‘fell apart’ after the wildfires.
Cohen is best known in Australia for being a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model in 2013 alongside the late Charlotte Dawson, Alex Perry, and host Jennifer Hawkins.
He was also a judge on Seven’s reality show Beauty and the Geek and appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice Australia.
As a model, Cohen has featured in campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Nike and Adidas, and was also the face of menswear label Industrie.
Cohen was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2018, after dealing with symptoms such as epilepsy, numbness, paralysis, fevers and bone pain since 2007.
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