Key Takeaways
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas allegedly kicked a deputy in the stomach after repeatedly leaving a vehicle and interrupting a DUI investigation in Westlake Village, California.
- Detectives referred the case to Ventura County prosecutors for possible public intoxication and felony battery charges, but officials have not announced a decision or timeline.
- The former Home Improvement star spent more than 34 hours in custody after the Sept. 21 encounter before authorities legally downgraded his arrest to a detention.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas’s encounter with sheriff’s deputies could lead to a felony prosecution. The Home Improvement star’s case is now with Ventura County prosecutors, who are reviewing allegations that he kicked a deputy in the stomach during a DUI investigation last month. The actor had been a passenger in the vehicle when authorities approached it in Westlake Village, California.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to People that the case has been submitted and is under review. Detectives referred it for possible charges of public intoxication and felony battery on a peace officer. No charging decision has been announced, and prosecutors have not provided a timeline for completing their review.
The 45-year-old was booked at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station following the Sept. 21 encounter, then released more than 34 hours later. His arrest was then legally downgraded to a detention.
The incident began with a car sitting through a green light. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, deputies pulled alongside the vehicle to see whether the driver needed help, then noticed signs of intoxication. They began conducting field sobriety tests on the driver, who was later arrested on suspicion of DUI. Thomas was in the passenger seat.
“The driver was being detained for DUI investigation. Sometime during the investigation, Mr. Taylor decided he would exit the vehicle. Deputies told him to sit back down in the vehicle,” law enforcement initially told People. Authorities alleged that Thomas disregarded those instructions and interrupted the investigation.
The sheriff’s department subsequently said Thomas “appeared intoxicated, continually exited the vehicle and approached the deputies, distracting them from their investigation.”
When deputies attempted to detain him for obstruction and public intoxication, authorities allege, he “kicked a deputy in the stomach.”
Less than two months earlier, Thomas had resurfaced in a much different setting: a reunion with his Home Improvement family. Patricia Richardson posted a July photo with Thomas and Taran Noah Smith, who played her sons Randy and Mark Taylor. “My other boys,” she captioned it.
The sitcom ran from 1991 to 1999, with Thomas playing the middle son opposite Richardson and Tim Allen.
Thomas also voiced young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King and starred in Tom and Huck before stepping away from Hollywood to pursue school and travel.
He attended Harvard, Columbia and the University of St. Andrews, later making a brief television return alongside Allen on Last Man Standing.
