Why Jonathan Taylor Thomas Could Be Arrested as a Passenger During a DUI Stop

Jonathan Taylor Thomas was not driving when police stopped a vehicle for a DUI investigation, but his conduct as a passenger allegedly led to his arrest.

The 45-year-old Home Improvement alum was detained September 21 in Westlake Village, Calif., after authorities pulled over the vehicle in which he was riding.

“The driver was being detained for DUI investigation,” a law enforcement source told a publication. “Sometime during the investigation, Mr. Taylor decided he would exit the vehicle.”

Deputies said Thomas refused instructions to sit back down and obstructed the investigation. He was arrested for alleged obstruction and public intoxication, booked at 1:50 a.m. and released more than 34 hours later.

“The Fourth Amendment requires that any seizure of a person be reasonable within the meaning of the law,” said Geoffrey S. Corn, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law, who is not involved in the case.

“But not all seizures are the same,” he explained.

Police may briefly detain someone when they have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, a lower threshold than the probable cause required for an arrest.

“Reasonable suspicion justifies only a ‘brief investigatory seizure’ for the purpose of confirming or negating the suspicion,” Corn said. “In many cases, the suspicion is confirmed and ‘blossoms’ to probable cause, then justifying arrest.”

If officers do not establish probable cause, however, they must end the detention.

Although Thomas was not suspected of driving under the influence, passengers can still be directed by officers during a lawful traffic stop.

“Police may automatically require both driver and passengers to exit a vehicle during a lawful stop — one based on RS or PC,” Corn said, using initialisms for reasonable suspicion and probable cause.

In Thomas’ case, authorities allege that he did the reverse by leaving the vehicle after being told to remain inside. Whether his actions legally amounted to obstruction would depend on the circumstances and whether the deputies’ instructions were lawful.

Corn said the practical boundary between a temporary detention and an arrest is not always obvious at the scene.

“For an arrest to be reasonable, police must always have probable cause,” he noted.

The district attorney’s office has not filed charges against Thomas, although prosecutors may still review the case and bring charges within the applicable statute of limitations.

Thomas largely withdrew from acting in the early 2000s after starring as Randy Taylor on Home Improvement. He made several appearances on Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing between 2013 and 2015 but has otherwise maintained a low public profile.