Actor Dustin Diamond — known as Screech on “Saved by the Bell” — was arrested in Wisconsin on Friday morning, charged with possession of a switchblade knife, reckless endangerment, and carrying a concealed weapon,
TMZ reported.
Diamond also was alleged to have stabbed a man with the knife, leaving the victim with minor injuries.
Law enforcement in Ozaukee County told TMZ that Diamond apparently got into an argument in a bar late Christmas evening, and he and his girlfriend left after the incident.
Police were called to the bar, according to Fox 6, at about 11:15 p.m. Thursday in response to a stabbing.
Officers found Diamond later with the knife in his car, TMZ said. His girlfriend was charged with disorderly conduct.
Fox 6 said the actor claimed he acted in self defense.
The charges are listed on
Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department website, which also said Diamond was held on a $10,000 bail. The reckless endangerment charge is a first-degree felony.
Diamond made the news this year for what The Huffington Post called “bad decisions,” including a tell-all book he wrote in 2009 called “Behind the Bell” that upset some of his former castmates. The book was recently made into a movie on Lifetime.
After the book and movie came out, Diamond said his ghostwriter misconstrued some of what he said and tried to distance himself from both. Dennis Haskins, who played Mr. Belding on “Saved by the Bell,” told the Post that he thought Diamond made some of the decisions he did to make money.
“I literally talked to Dustin yesterday," Haskins told the Post. "I haven’t talked to him in several years but he reached out to me. He made some choices to do some things that he’s dealing with the results of his choices. You got to remember Dustin was 12 and everybody else was 15 and 16. That’s not a natural fit. … But I never was aware that it was a huge deal. … Dustin thinks different. He acts different. He is different."