Home Improvement actor Zachery Ty Bryan was arrested Thursday in connection with a technical violation linked to his domestic violence arrest two months ago.
The 41-year-old actor was taken into custody at the Lane County Jail in Eugene, Oregon Thursday, jail officials confirmed to TMZ, and released Sunday after posting bail.
The Aurora, Colorado-born actor’s lawyer John J. Kolego said that Bryan was taken in because of a breach to his terms of release after he forgot to keep his ankle monitor charged with energy.
Kolego said that paperwork the outlet reviewed of the latest arrest – indicating Bryan had been charged with two counts fourth-degree felony assault – was erroneous, as did multiple other sources to the outlet.
Bryan, who played Brad Taylor on the ABC series from 1991-1999, had been taken into custody when he visited the court office, and no judge was involved.
In trouble: Home Improvement actor Zachery Ty Bryan was arrested in Eugene, Oregon Thursday in connection with a technical violation linked to his domestic violence arrest two months ago; seen in his mugshot from October 17, 2020
The arrest was not tied to alcohol consumption, Kolego told the outlet, adding that the actor ‘is looking forward to exonerating himself at trial’ over the charges stemming from his domestic violence arrest in July, which was his second in three years.
The actor was arrested July 28 in connection with fourth-degree felony assault in Eugene, Oregon, TMZ reported at the time, noting that Bryan was accused of getting physical with a woman who was not named by authorities.
Bryan was charged with a pair of felonies and a misdemeanor in connection with the July incident: assault, robbery and harassment.
In October of 2020, Bryan was arrested on accusations he assaulted and strangled his fiancée Johnnie Faye Cartwright, and in February 2021, he entered guilty pleas to two misdemeanor domestic violence charges in connection with the incident.
Cartwright, who got engaged to the actor in November of 2021, shares three young children with him: one-year-old daughter Kennedy, and four-month-old twins Parker and Sequoia.
Cartwright told US Weekly in a statement in August: ‘I ask everyone to please be respectful of our privacy for the sake of the children and our families so the healing process can begin.’
‘I’ll always want what’s best for the father of my children,’ Cartwright told the publication of Bryan, adding that ‘trauma can bring struggles in many shapes and forms,’ while giving her take on the reporting of the recent incident.
‘It’s a horrible situation that’s going to be spun in so many ways,’ she said. ‘I’ve learned firsthand the truth will never align with what’s been put out there.’
Details: The actor was taken into custody at the Lane County Jail in Eugene, Oregon Thursday, jail officials confirmed to TMZ , and released Sunday after posting bail. Pictured in 2018
Details: The fiancée of embattled actor Home Improvement actor Zachery Ty Bryan said in July that she’ll ‘always want what’s best’ for the actor following his domestic violence arrest
Out of juice: The Aurora, Colorado-born actor’s lawyer John J. Kolego said that Bryan was taken in because of a breach to his probation after he forgot to keep his ankle monitor charged with energy; seen in 2016 in Santa Monica, Calif.
The latest charge appears to indicate that he is accused of attacking someone who had previously obtained a domestic violence restraining order, though the alleged victim has not yet been named.
Members of the Eugene Police Department told TMZ that police received a call about a physical altercation between and man and a woman at a local residence.
However, once officers responded to the scene Bryan was nowhere to be found.
They reportedly were able to track him down, though, and he was transported to the jail and booked on the felony assault charge.
It remains unclear if his fiancée Cartwright, who was the target of his 2020 attack, was also the victim of the recent alleged altercation.
Bryan’s latest alleged domestic violence incident comes just more a month after he claimed that his previous arrest in 2020 was a ‘wake-up call’ as he tries to rebuild his life.
The former child star, claimed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the physical altercation in October of that year started because his girlfriend at the time, Johnnie Faye Cartwright, was upset he was ‘living a double life’ and was still married — even though he had announced his divorce two weeks earlier.
He later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of menacing and assault in the fourth degree and was sentenced to a three-year probation and attendance in a violence intervention program, and was ordered to have no further contact with the victim.
More trouble: Police responded to a call about an altercation between a man and a woman, but Bryan was gone at that point; seen with his fiancée Johnnie Faye Cartwright
Background: His charge indicates he’s accused of attacking someone who previously had a domestic violence restraining order, though the alleged victim hasn’t been named; pictured in 2009 with his ex-wife Carly Matros
Bryan said he now tries to stay away from alcohol, and he and Cartwright were still together and were now raising their children.
Bryan rose to national fame in the 1990s as the eldest child on Home Improvement, which also starred Tim Allen and future teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
After the show ended in 1999, Bryan turned to film roles and earned guest spots on television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Boston Public and Veronica Mars.
He then became an executive producer on independent films, and married his high school sweetheart Carly Matros in 2007.
They would go on to have four children that they raised together in a multi-million dollar home in Newport Beach, California. The youngest, a son, was born in March 2019, joining three daughters — including a set of twins.
In more recent years, Bryan has made a name for himself as a conservative commentator on platforms like FOX News and The Daily Wire.
In September 2020, Bryan announced he and Matros were getting a divorce — and in a ridiculous twist he appeared to have plagiarized Armie Hammer’s divorce announcement almost word for word.
He now admits to The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I was just in party freaking mode — making movies, traveling, drinking. I wasn’t living the way I was raised, you know what I mean?
Glory days: Bryan had rose to national fame in the 1990s as the eldest child on Home Improvement, which also starred Tim Allen and future teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas
‘I was not being a faithful husband, and I was not being the best me,’ he continued. ‘I thought I would be able to go out and do whatever I wanted, have fun, come home and be a family man with my kids. That’s not how the real world works.’
Just 16 days after the divorce announcement, in October of 2020, Bryan was arrested in Oregon and charged with felony strangulation, fourth-degree assault, coercion, menacing, harassment and interference with making a police report.
The most serious charges, including felony strangulation, were later dropped and he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors.
He was also ordered by the court not to ‘buy, possess or consume alcoholic beverages’ or be in any place that sells or serves alcohol as its primary purpose.
It was his second arrest of 2020, after being booked for DUI that May. He pleaded guilty in that case as well, and was sentenced to five years probation and 18 months in a multiple-offender alcohol program due to a record of other DUI arrests in 2004, 2007 and 2017.
According to Oregon police records obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Cartwright claimed that on the night of the alleged assault, Bryan, with whom she had been in a ‘sexually intimate’ relationship for two years, woke her up demanding to know what happened to his cellphone charging cables.
She alleged that he ‘pulled her hair’ and punched her in the face multiple times.
The two then fell on a set of stairs, at which point, the police report says, Bryan ‘grabbed Cartwright’s neck with both hands and choked her’ for about 45 seconds.
Responding officers said they saw multiple injuries on Cartwright, who claimed Bryan became abusive a month earlier. But Bryan claimed Cartwright woke him up and bit him in the groin.
He alleged that her injuries were self-inflicted in an effort to set him up because she ‘wanted to ruin his career’ after he said he wanted to break up and stop paying her rent.
‘I heard her tell dispatch, “This is the guy from Home Improvement. He’s the famous guy,”‘ Bryan reportedly told officers on the scene.
Looking back, he says the arrest ‘got so blown out of proportion’ by the media, and claims it was not as physical as the police report states.
Trying to stay afloat: After the show ended in 1999, Bryan turned to film roles and earned guest spots on television shows. He is pictured here on Home Improvement with Tim Allen
Rightward turn: In recent years, he has become a conservative commentator on FOX News and The Daily Wire
He explained that he and Cartwright began seeing each other when he was still married and there were times she would get upset over his ‘double life.’
And even though he announced his divorce, Bryan claimed the fight escalated that night because they had both ‘been drinking too much.
‘We didn’t even really get that physical,’ he said. ‘We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear.’
He continued to say Cartwright ‘was at the time just really upset about my situation.’
And, he claimed, ‘At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead something,’ noting that cops nicknamed him ‘Country Club Zach’ and seemed to poke fun at his fame.
‘I could’ve fought it… but that’s more stress and drama,’ Bryan explained. ‘I got two misdemeanors and called it a day.’
But he said he now thanks God for his arrest, describing it as a ‘wake up call.’
‘I went through a situation that I’m pretty sure plenty of people across the globe experience with their partners, and that was a learning experience,’ Bryan said.
He acknowledged he ‘definitely [has] an issue with drinking’ but does not believe the term ‘alcoholic’ applies to him.
‘Dude, I started drinking when I was 14,’ he said. ‘Back then I was going to nightclubs and they would just let me in because I was the kid from Home Improvement.’
Now, he says, he tries to stay away from alcohol, explaining: ‘I’m not going out and getting lit, and that takes away a lot of my problems.’
He and Cartwright were still together prior to his latest arrest.
In November 2021, just one year after his arrest, Bryan revealed that he and Cartwright were engaged to be married.
Based on the timeline of his now private Instagram account, The Hollywood Reporter found, Cartwright was already pregnant with a girl at the time.
He announced the birth on the social media platform in spring 2022.
That November, Bryan also revealed that he and Cartwright were expecting twins, and she gave birth in May.
More trouble: Bryan continues to face scrutiny for his role selling tokens for an ag-tech company that never materialized; seen in 2016 with his ex-wife Carly Matros
But the actor/producer continues to face scrutiny from some who considered him one of their closest friends.
In 2018, they explain, Bryan linked up with Producers Market, an ag-tech startup focused on farmers and the global food chain.
The company aimed to empower farmers by removing the middleman and putting profits more directly in their tokens using a QR code that would allow them to tip farmers.
It explored using tokens to fund growth, and brought Bryan — who had made millions in the early days of Bitcoin — on as an adviser to help develop relationships within the crypto community.
He then invested in the money in the company, and asked others to do the same.
But the plans for a token system never materialized, and in 2019 the company officially decided to end Bryan’s role as an advisor.
Executives learned just one year later that Bryan was selling the nonexistent tokens to other investors.
‘Mr. Bryan misrepresented our company without our knowledge, participation or permission,’ a spokesperson said. ‘When we found out, we immediately issued a cease and desist demand to him.
‘This activity is unacceptable and not a reflection of our mission to support the well-being of farmers and our food systems.’
But Bryan denies he was ‘running some shady scam deal — that’s just not me.’
‘What people don’t understand is that you take risks, nothing is for sure,’ he said, vowing that if the company ever goes public, he will personally distribute his Producers Market stock to those who are still waiting on their money.
