Actor Darius McCrary, best known for playing Eddie Winslow on the classic 90s sitcom Family Matters, is behind bars in San Diego following an arrest at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this month. According to arrest records obtained by The Blast, McCrary was taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol on Sunday, October 5, on felony charges. He has not yet been sentenced and is not currently eligible for bail. The arrest was listed as a “fugitive arrest.”
McCrary’s representative, Ann Barlow, told TMZ that the actor’s arrest was the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding. “Darius was picked up at the Border of Mexico because he was partnering with a real estate developer that is building homes for the homeless in Tijuana, Mexico,” she said. “Darius was doing a GOOD DEED when he discovered he had a felony warrant at the Border of Mexico for a missed court appearance.”
Barlow explained that the missed court date was tied to an ongoing child support dispute in Michigan. “The missed court appearance was for an ongoing child support dispute, whereas Oakland County mailed the notice to appear to Darius PO BOX giving him only 3 days to appear in Michigan Court,” she said. “Unfortunately, Darius had COVID therefore did not check his PO Box until the day after his court date.”
She added that McCrary quickly took steps to clear things up. “However, he immediately notified the judge with a doctor’s note diagnosis of COVID,” Barlow said.
McCrary’s first court date is scheduled for Wednesday, October 15.
The actor, 48, rose to fame playing the charming teenage son Eddie Winslow on Family Matters, one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1990s. But in recent years, his name has appeared in headlines for less flattering reasons. McCrary has faced several legal issues, including a contentious custody battle with his ex-wife, Tammy Brawner.
Brawner, a former Harlem Globetrotter, filed for divorce in 2017, citing irreconcilable differences and concerns about their young daughter’s safety. She was granted full legal and physical custody in 2019, according to People. McCrary was ordered to attend alcohol, drug abuse, and batterers’ intervention classes within a year, and he was granted visitation rights with his daughter. He was also required to pay $1,366 per month in child support.
Court documents obtained by TMZ in 2018 included a series of allegations Brawner made against McCrary. In one claim, she alleged that he “held [our daughter] over a hot stove with fire going and boiling water going,” when the child was “no more than eight or nine months old.” She also said McCrary told her he did not like their daughter and “wish[ed] he didn’t have her.”
That same year, McCrary strongly denied those claims in a statement to TMZ, saying, “None of these allegations are true … I would never do anything to harm my child.”
Now, McCrary finds himself in legal trouble again, though his team insists this latest arrest is simply the result of bad timing and poor communication rather than any new wrongdoing. As his representative emphasized, the actor was “doing a good deed” before learning about the outstanding warrant.
For now, McCrary remains in custody in San Diego as he awaits his next court appearance, with his legal team hoping to resolve the issue quickly.
