Kiefer Sutherland’s Hollywood night took a left turn just after midnight, early Monday morning. Los Angeles Police say the 59-year-old actor was arrested near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue after an incident inside a ride-share vehicle around 12:15 a.m. PST. Police timed it at 00:15 PST (08:15 GMT). The LAPD’s summary is blunt: Sutherland “entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats.” Police also said the driver wasn’t injured, which is the calm detail in this whole thing.
Officer Kevin Terzes put it even more plainly in an email: “The investigation determined that the suspect, later identified as Kiefer Sutherland, entered a rideshare vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats toward the victim.” Investigators booked Sutherland a little after 4 a.m. on an unspecified felony charge, jail records say, then released him after he posted $50,000 bond. The BBC has contacted his representatives for comment. Police scheduled him for court on February 2. One report lists 2026.
If you’re thinking, “Wait, Jack Bauer?”, yep. Sutherland built his TV legend as 24’s no-sleep counterterror agent and later played a U.S. president in Designated Survivor. He also carries a famous surname as the son of the late Donald Sutherland.
This arrest lands on top of a long list of legal speed bumps. In 2007, he served 48 days in jail for DUI and violating probation after pleading no contest, and that case marked his fourth DUI since 1989. In 2009, New York police arrested him after he allegedly head-butted fashion designer Jack McCollough. Charges later dropped after Sutherland issued a public apology.
Work hasn’t stopped. He narrated Apple TV+’s John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial in December 2023 and appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2 in 2024. That’s the part that makes this story messy: career momentum on one side, late-night trouble on the other.
If you’ve ever wondered how fast a headline can rewrite a public image, this is your live demo. Now the next scene belongs to the LAPD’s Hollywood Division and the court calendar, not a film set.
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