Zachery Ty Bryan, an actor best known for starring in the hit sitcom Home Improvement, has been arrested and charged with fourth-degree felony assault. The news was first broken by TMZ on Sunday, before subsequently being confirmed by the police department in Eugene, Oregon, where the incident allegedly occurred. According to a statement from the Eugene Police Department, a physical dispute involving Bryan and an unnamed woman occurred on Friday, July 28th. People.com confirms that Bryan is still is police custody as of Monday.
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“At around 6:00 p.m. on July 28, Eugene Police received report of a physical dispute between a male and adult female at a north Eugene residence,” the statement reads. “The dispute was reported to have occurred several hours prior and the suspect, identified as Zachery Ty Bryan, age 41, of Laguna Beach, California, had left the location. Eugene Police subsequently contacted Bryan in the area. Bryan was lodged at Lane County Jail on a charge of Assault in the Fourth Degree APA (Abuse Prevention Act).”
This is the second time in three years that Bryan has been arrested on similar charges, after previously pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts regarding a 2020 incident in which he strangled a woman, later revealed to be his fiancee, Johnnie Faye Cartwright. In 2021, he was subsequently sentenced to 36 months of bench probation, and additional charges, including two Class C felonies, were dropped. Bryan later claimed to The Hollywood Reporter that the event, which was sparked by the fact that he was having an affair with Cartwright while married to his first wife, Carly Matros, was “so blown out of proportion.”
“We didn’t even really get that physical,” Bryan said at the time. “We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear. Johnnie was, at the time, just really upset about my situation. At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something. I could’ve fought it … but that’s more stress and drama. I got two misdemeanors and called it a day.”
Bryan is best known for portraying Brad Taylor, the son of Tim Allen’s Tim “The Toolman” Taylor, on the aforementioned sitcom Home Improvement, as well as appearances on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Smallville, The Game of Their Lives, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Thor: Hammer of the Gods. He most recently lent his voice to the Netflix original animated series The Guardians of Justice.
In addition to these domestic violence charges, Bryan made headlines in June of 2023 for being accused of fraud, in relation to an agriculture-technology startup. The Hollywood Reporter‘s article reports allegations from four separate sources that Bryan stole anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 from them. Bryan reportedly promised contracts to those who gave him money, but the contracts had no actual value.
