‘Home Improvement’ Star Zachery Ty Bryan Pleads Guilty to Felony Assault

Home Improvement actor Zachery Ty Bryan has pleaded guilty to felony assault after being arrested in Eugene, Oregon, back in July.

Bryan reportedly pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid extensive jail time, according to The Wrap.

The actor’s lawyer, John Kolego, released a statement to the outlet on Wednesday, explaining that his client “believes this is the manner he could best resolve this to avoid further trauma to his family.”

ET previously learned that at 6 p.m. local time on Friday, July 28, Eugene Police received a report of a physical dispute between a male and adult female at a north Eugene residence. The dispute was reported to have occurred several hours prior and the suspect, identified as Bryan, had left the location.

Eugene Police subsequently found Bryan in the area, and he was put into custody at Lane County Jail on a charge of Assault in the Fourth Degree under the APA (Abuse Prevention Act), due to the fact that he’d already had a restraining order filed against him by the victim stemming from a previous incident.

As part of his deal, Bryan will be sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation — instead of the possible 19 to 20 months in the Oregon Department of Corrections, which could have been the outcome had he not pleaded guilty.

As part of the deal, he was also ordered not to have any contact with the victim — whose identity was not named in the initial police report.

ET has reached out to Bryan’s legal team for comment.

Bryan’s recent arrest follows a long list of legal troubles he has faced. In May of 2020, Bryan was booked for a DUI. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to five years of probation and 18 months of a multiple-offender alcohol program, due to his past DUI arrests in 2004, 2007 and 2017, the outlet reports, citing court documents.

In October 2020, Bryan was arrested in Oregon and charged with felony strangulation, fourth-degree assault, coercion, menacing, harassment, and interference with making a police report following an incident with Johnnie Faye Cartwright — a woman who he’d been romantically involved with during his marriage to his ex-wife Carly Matros.

In an expose — published by The Hollywood Reporter in June, both sides of the alleged incident involving Cartwright and Bryan were detailed in a police report obtained by the trade publication.

Cartwright alleged Bryan was abusive in the month leading up to the incident and claimed in the report that Bryan woke her up to find out what happened to his cell phone charger, “pulled her hair,” punched her in the face, and “choked her” for approximately 45 seconds.  

Bryan told the outlet that the arrest “got so blown out of proportion.” He claimed that Cartwright, whom he began seeing when he was married, was upset over his “double life” and things escalated because they’d both “been drinking too much.”

Bryan ended up pleading guilty to misdemeanor menacing and fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to three years of probation and attendance in a violence intervention. He was additionally ordered to have no contact with Cartwright and to not “buy, possess or consume alcoholic beverages” or be in any place that sells or serves alcohol as a principal purpose.

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