Dustin Diamond Charged with Stabbing Man: Criminal Complaint

The Saved by the Bell actor was charged with recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon

Photo: Chris Polk/FilmMagic

Dustin Diamond, better known as nerdy Samuel “Screech” Powers in the early 1990s sitcom Saved by the Bell, remains in police custody after being arrested Friday for allegedly stabbing a man at a bar in Port Washington, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee.

Diamond, 37, was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon after he admitted he was armed with a knife during a fight Thursday night at the Grand Avenue Saloon. Diamond, who was interviewed after he left the bar, told officers he was defending his 27-year-old fiancée Amanda Schutz.

Diamond is claiming self-defense and reportedly seeking private counsel, according to FOX 6.

Diamond appeared in court Friday, when the judge set a $10,000 cash bond for the first-degree reckless endangerment offense and $1,000 for the other two charges. He remains in jail and is due to appear in court again Monday.

According to a criminal complaint, the former child star stated that the incident began after he declined to shake the hand of a woman who was bumping into his girlfriend. Soon after, he said, a man confronted him. He said he decided to pay, get their coats and leave before a “brawl” erupted.

At that point, he said, he heard his girlfriend scream. He turned around and saw that she was bleeding and that two men were holding her by the hair. Diamond said he was moving toward his girlfriend when a bar patron grabbed him.

“I moved his arm up and around, and I had the knife in my hand, or the, ah, pen in my hand,” he said in the complaint. Eventually, his girlfriend was released, and they left the bar.

During the interview, an officer observed that “twice during his conversation with Diamond, as Diamond was talking about having a pen in his hand he referred to it as a knife, and then corrected himself saying it was a pen,” according to the complaint.

After Diamond was confronted with a video taken in the bar and told that law enforcement had found a knife, possibly with blood on it, Diamond admitted he had a knife.

“Diamond stated that he did not intentionally stab the individual in the bar, but that chaos broke out and people were grabbing at him and that he swung his arms to break free,” according to the complaint.

After Diamond and Schutz left the bar, they were pulled over in his white SUV by the police who discovered a “stiletto folding knife with a 3.75-inch blade, which uses a thumb stud and assisted opening mechanism.”

Diamond told police he had received a new knife that day and he owns numerous knifes.

Police interviewed the alleged stabbing victim at his home as paramedics evaluated him. The man, who was identified only as “Casey,” told police that he saw Diamond “being negative and fighting with people.”

He said he then approached Diamond and “had pushed him on one or two occasions.” Casey said that at one point, Diamond reached out toward him and then left the bar. He told officers he didn’t see the knife and initially didn’t realize he had been cut. He suffered a half-inch puncture stab wound under his right armpit. His wound was not life threatening.

One witness told police that a woman, identified as Marie B., was looking at her phone when Schutz swiped at the phone and shoved her “stating something to the effect of, ‘that’s enough pictures,’ ” and a fight between the women ensued after that. Another witness said she saw a knife in Diamond’s hands and heard him exclaim, “get them off my wife” but didn’t see anyone attacking her and told him to leave.

Schutz was charged with disorderly conduct and released, according to CNN.