A former child TV star who has been wanted by authorities for more than a year after skipping a court hearing in July 2008 was arrested Saturday on the year-old warrant and on suspicion of hitting a friend in the face with a broken stool.
Brian Bonsall, 28, now faces new third-degree-assault charges and failure-to-appear charges in connection with a previous assault case dating back to 2007.
Bonsall, who most notably starred as Michael J. Fox’s little brother Andy Keaton on the 1980s TV series “Family Ties,” lived in Boulder for several years and graduated from Boulder High School in 2000, before leaving town in 2008. His time in Boulder was marred by numerous run-ins with authorities, including an arrest in 2004 for drunken driving and an arrest in 2007 for assaulting his girlfriend.
In 2008, officers suspected that Bonsall had violated his probation in the earlier assault case and were planning to lay out new charges against him. But Bonsall failed to appear for a hearing on July 16, 2008, and has been wanted ever since.
Police caught up with him about 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the home of his friend, Michael Trujillo, at 1121 11th St. in Boulder. According to an arrest report, officers were called to the apartment three times that night before they arrested Bonsall on suspicion of hitting Trujillo, 26, in the face with a part from a broken stool.
Trujillo said he and Bonsall began arguing and he asked Bonsall to leave. Bonsall refused and then attacked Trujillo with the stool, according to police. Bonsall told officers both he and Trujillo had been drinking “a lot” that night, and he didn’t remember what had happened.
“Bonsall then said that he and Trujillo both are bipolar and like drugs,” according to the report. “Bonsall said that he takes a lot of drugs and sometimes those drugs make him forget things.”
Bonsall is being held at the Boulder County Jail in lieu of two bails totaling $7,500.
