Family Matters Fugitive Denied Bail

Hey there, folks. It it's Thursday, October sixteenth, and the former star of a beloved nineties sitcom is sitting in jail right now, a judge refusing to let him out of jail all over yes, a family matter. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.

Robes.

You used that line before. It is literally true. The former star of Family Matters is sitting in jail, denied bail right now over a family issue.

Correct. Yes, the Family Matters theme is sticking with him, but not in a good way. For Darius McCrary, he's forty nine years old, made his first court appearance yesterday. This story is bizarre, and his behavior in court was even more bizarre, I would say concerning it seemed as if he was not altogether.

Yeah, he was trying to represent himself and maybe he was a little confused about the process. The judge was confused at times that we could clearly hear. But I don't think I would have known, first of all, his name, Darius McCrary with that of immediately.

No, I would not have known his name. But you know his face, oh.

Of course, Oh my goodness, it's undmistakable. Still to this day. All these years later, Jaleel right White, I think a lot of people know that name immediately arkle from Family Matters and this show. I didn't realize they had a great run. Yeah, the show was on for nine seasons, that's the first five they would get twenty million plus.

Wow and back in the day, right, what.

The actual help? But this was a big deal of a sitcom that it features one of the few featured prominently black cast focused on a middle class black family, and he was the older brother.

Yes, people have said he's kind of like the Malcolm Jamal Warner of Family Matters. Basically there were people were making comparisons and he has that look in the same way. When we heard, of course the tragic news about Malcolm Jamal, you saw where he was how many years decades later, and he still had that same smile, that same face. And truly, Darius McCrary is the same despite all he's facing.

But yes, his name is not the one that jumps out, I think obviously because of Diehard Reginald Bill Johnson, who played the dad in that show. Obviously I love that guy, but this was he ends up getting this show because of that role in his stardom in Diehard. So all these things came together to actually give this kid, give Darius McCrary a pretty wonderful opportunity. And now he has a place really robes in television and broadcast and sitcom history because of the role he played.

And unfortunately he's making the kind of news and the kind of history nobody wants to make. You know, a lot of people point to child actors in pros and tough times, and it seems as though one can only assume he's been in some sort of financial distress because these charges are back pay for child support payments, and according to reports, he owes ninety five thousand dollars in back pay of child support payments. That's significant, yes, and that.

Has to accumulate over time if that actually is true. But that is out of Michigan, he claims. And this is nowhere we get into and initially we were. You almost are scratching your head at best, giggling at worst at some of the reasoning and logic that came up to what happened, but he was he missed a court appearance in Michigan, and because of that, the arrest warrant

Yes, bail was denied yesterday, and he was apprehended at the border, at the Mexico border. So he is currently in San Diego right there, obviously near Tijuana, and there's all sorts of back and forth and confusion about why he was in Mexico in the first place.

Because he was kind of in Mexico.

Kind of Tijuana. Well, so he was arrested actually trying to get back into the United States. That's when he was arrested, not when he was he claims accidentally across the border into Mexico. Do you buy that.

I can't make sense of it. It doesn't mean it didn't happen, doesn't mean it's not true, but he made the quarter appearance yesterday, but they say he was arrested on October fifth. So his lawyers and his I guess his agent people had different and stories here robes, but the official one he's going with right now is what was he doing when he was caught.

So he claims, and by the way, he represented himself in yesterday's hearing, which was such a mess. The judge was like, nah, you need to have some legal representation because you don't know what the hell you're doing or talking about. And we can get into that because what

But real estate and building homes for the homeless kind of go together. Maybe those things are related, and somebody who's got don't have all the details. That's possible.

But the confusing thing is though that he's saying he didn't mean to go to Mexico. So despite some explanations as to why he was in Tijuana, now we're hearing him say he accidentally cross the.

Border because he was supposed to be meeting the guy in charge of the project and helping build the homes, and that was confusion about where they were supposed to meet.

Is the story got it? So where is this guy? Because that could clear a lot of things off. I'm just saying if we could hear from him, I would feel better about this version of his story.

So, yeah, you get confused when you confuse about where to meet somebody. Is it on this side of the street or is on that side of the street.

You don't accidentally cross into Mexico, Okay, it's a process. You don't just walk in to Mexico casually cross the border. Whoopsie, there are border patrol agents. There are actual like aren't there. Like it's kind of like even I think about an easy pass station on steroids, Like I haven't crossed the

But those are Mexican officials checking your information, right, So I'm saying an arrest warrant wouldn't have popped up only on the way back.

Right, although I don't know, like who knows that. I'm surprised that that didn't pop up. Then if there was a if he missed a court appearance back in June and he had an arrest warrant out for him, it is interesting he was able to get into Mexico without being flagged at that point, because that was the initial story that he was apprehended trying to go to Mexico. But it's been I guess now clarified that he actually got apprehended coming back into the United States.

So the story, who knows what it is, But why did he miss a court appearance having to do with childs support in the first place.

Ropes got an explanation for that. So here's the problem. See, the notice was sent to a PO box and not to his actual physical home address he claimed that's from. And then on top of that, he claims he had COVID and he was really sick and that's why he hadn't gone to check his pobox. Now, apparently he recovered well enough to accidentally head to Mexico, but he didn't swing by his PO box first to get that really important court appearance notice saying he was wanted in court.

That, I mean, how my question how late? How far past a court appearance or responding to the court before they issue a war weren't for your arrest? If you get a notice to come to court, it's not going to be a notice that, hey, your court date is tomorrow, it's going to be in two days, in two weeks, could be next month.

You usually have ample time to plan around a court date like that.

Okay, So is it possible he didn't check the PO box for quite some time?

Is that he must have had what is it called the long hauler syndrome of COVID, Because I've had COVID twice that I know of. I was recovered within three to four days.

Oh well, I am not going to it all make any assumptions about the level of discomfort he had while he had COVID. That thing is serious.

He was able to physically make his way from Michigan to Tijuana.

It was more important to get to the people, the homeless who need homes. Okay in Tijuana.

I don't know, I mean, I don't know they did it? Was it Endeavor? There was the name of an organization. I actually thought now, so obviously this is verifiable. So whatever he's saying, Oh, he's going to have to be a name, verify it. Oh I didn't see that. Does that make it different from him?

Yes, it does. I didn't know that was official name. I thought that was a guy's name. They said Rando that he was trying to find. But that makes.

Perfect Esperanza programs. So this he's this is according to his representative. She says that he accidentally crossed into Mexico due to a mix up about where to meet his partner for the Esperanza program, where he volunteered to build homes for unhoused individuals. That is exactly what the name of the organization is that they referenced Esperanza. I'm not familiar with it.

Housing and benefits assistance in Philadelphia, Esperanza program. Yes, there's a thing that does something with housing in Tijuana maybe all over, Yes, for thirty years, the Esperanza program.

All right, I cannot wait to hear from Esperanza.

I can what if he's listed in the leadership here something he's not, But yes, it is exactly what it's what they do. This is interesting. So is it possible that he legitimately had something to do in Mexico.

It's just there was a lot of mixed messaging going on, so it's confusing to know what to believe and what not to believe. So much so that the judge was like, yeah, we're going to deny your bail. You're going to need to be extradited back to Michigan, where then you can actually go and appear in court for those missed child support payments, which he says was an accident as well.

Yeah, but stay with us here when we come back. We'll explain what his response to all that that. The judge says, yeah, we'll tell you what his response was and why his quote appearance was a bit bizarre and a bit confusing even to the judge.

And continuing our coverage of a well a developing and can even it's a story that just gets more and more bizarre as the days go on. We're talking about former Family Matters star dealing with some very tricky family matters right now, and he needs to appear in family court. In the meantime, though, he has been in a jail on the border of Mexico and the United States after he was arrested apparently now trying to cross back into the country after accidentally going to Mexico. He claims to

No, it was very confusing and he was at times trying to At one point he cited a case, another criminal case and trying to make a point about his own rights being violated. It was you couldn't make sense really of what he was saying. He was trying to represent himself. He was also standing behind I guess kind of in a glass holding cell, trying to talk to the judge through the window, So that made it all so awkward. But it was strange and what was this

It made me actually think he was going for an insanity defense. I don't think that that's a defense for not paying child support, but it actually felt like he was setting up a mentally unstable sort of defense for himself, because that's how bizarre it was. But specifically, I have some of the quotes at the beginning of the hearing, he addressed the judge saying, I'd like to say I'm here on special appearance. The judge was very confused and

Again, he was trying to do some lawyering and was making them a claim that his rights were being violated, and particularly his rights as it comes to due process, and he said that in court, but he starts signing the fourth, the fifth, the fourteenth Amendment. He's throwing all this out, and the judge only heard the voice. I think it was a woman.

It seemed like a woman.

Yes, I mean she was patient there and indulged him for a little bit, but she finally got to a point and say, all right, we need to wrap this up. Go get a lawyer. We're going to sign you one right and try this again. I think he has another court appearance and we can have I think the fourteenth when did I.

See, Well, Michigan has thirty days to kick him up from this jail cell in San Diego to bring him back to Michigan to face the charges he's facing there. So yeah, this is just it. It was a strange story that got stranger and it's look, who knows what's going on in his life. Who knows what's going on in his head, but certainly he needs legal help, but it seemed like he needed even more help than that after watching him.

I hate to say, I don't know what's going on in his personal life, but he certainly don't want to didn't want to end up where he is. And for a lot of us who grew up watching, loving, admiring, looking up to gets like him, you just hate to see it. But like anybody else, people have issues and problems in life and try to do the best to make them right.

It is one of those things where people go through tough times, but usually not with the spectacle of cameras and people trying to discern, you know, your lowest point to know that everybody's watching and listening, and it's not how you want to be remembered, and it's certainly not how you want to have your name back in the headlines, especially when you've been you know, the person he's been and representing and a show that's been beloved, And it's