Actor Kiefer Sutherland has been arrested after an alleged altercation with a ride-share driver.
According to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department obtained by, Us Weekly the 24 star was detained “just after midnight” on Monday, January 12, after “officers responded to a radio call about an assault involving a ride-share driver near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.” (Local news outlet NBC4 Investigateswas the first to report the news.)
“On January 12, around 12:15 a.m., officers from the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a radio call regarding an assault involving a ride-share driver near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue,” the statement said. “The investigation determined that the suspect, later identified as Kiefer Sutherland, entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats toward the victim.”
According to the LAPD, officers “arrested Sutherland at the scene for Criminal Threats, in violation of California Penal Code section 422,’ which is a felony.
The alleged victim did not sustain any injuries, according to authorities, that required medical treatment at the scene. The Hollywood Division has been assigned to the case.
Us has reached out representatives for Sutherland for comment.
Sutherland is reportedly due in court on Monday, February 2.
Monday’s arrest is far from Sutherland’s first brush with the law. In 1989, the British-Canadian actor was arrested for a DUI and accused of having a loaded weapon on him. The weapons charge was dropped when the actor pleaded no contest to the DUI.
Keifer Sutherland Getty Images
He was arrested again in 1993, eventually pleading no contest in a deal with prosecutors, ABC News reported at the time. Sutherland was sentenced to 200-plus hours of community service. In 2004, he was again arrested for driving under the influence. He pleaded no contest and received a five-year probation and court ordered substance abuse treatment, Reuters reported. He was still on probation when he was arrested in September 2007, a violation of his plea deal. As a result, Sutherland served time.
“You ever get a brochure for a holiday and you get there and it’s not quite what you’re expecting?” the actor asked during a 2008 appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. “Jail is not that. It’s exactly as advertised. One of the gang members in one of the cells was making all his signs to me, which I certainly didn’t understand, and I went like that. He got a chuckle out of that.”
Sutherland went on to detail his first experience showering in jail, telling the late night host that he felt like a “cliché,” he said at the time, laughing. “[I was] very conscious and looking around. And I, actually, I dropped the soap. I remember looking down at the soap and looking around, and I went, ‘Soap is overrated.’”
In 2022, while appearing on the “Kyle Meredith With” podcast, Sutherland further elaborated on his incarceration, explaining that he found a way to use humor to cope. He also shared that the seriousness of his crimes and experience was not lost on him.
Man, there ain’t no sound I learned to hate more than the sound of the county jail gate,” he said at the time.
Sutherland, the son of late actor Donald Sutherland, shares daughter Sarah Sutherland, known for her role as Catherine Meyer on Veep, with his first wife Camelia Kath. He was also married to Elizabeth Kelly Winn from 1996 to 2004. He’s been engaged to Cindy Vela since 2017.