'Home Improvement' star Jonathan Taylor Thomas arrested in California, police allege he kicked deputy

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the former child star of the 1990s sitcom Home Improvement, was detained by police in Westlake Village, California, on Monday 21 September.

The 45-year-old actor — real name Jonathan Taylor Weiss — played Randy Taylor on the sitcom from 1991 to 1999 and voiced the young Simba in Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King. He was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over for a DUI investigation, PEOPLE reports.

In a statement reported by PEOPLE, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said deputies stopped a car that was sitting at an intersection on a green light and blocking traffic, and that the driver appeared intoxicated. While field sobriety tests were being carried out on the driver, Thomas got out of the vehicle, approached the deputies and was uncooperative after being told to sit back down, the statement said.

The sheriff’s department statement alleges that as deputies attempted to detain him for obstruction and public intoxication, Thomas “kicked a deputy in the stomach”. That is an allegation from the department’s account, not an established fact, and no charges have been filed.

Jail records cited by PEOPLE show he was detained at 12:32am and booked at 1:50am on Monday at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, and released more than 34 hours later, on Tuesday. The case may be submitted to the Ventura County district attorney’s office for filing consideration. PEOPLE has contacted Thomas’s representatives for comment.

Sources

• https://people.com/home-improvement-star-jonathan-taylor-thomas-arrested-for-public-intoxication-and-resisting-deputy-police-12137306
• https://ew.com/home-improvement-star-jonathan-taylor-thomas-detained-los-angeles-12137190
• https://cw7az.com/news/home-improvement-actor-jonathan-taylor-thomas-arrested-in-california/