‘Saved by the Bell’ actor Dustin Diamond back in jail over probation

(Reuters) – The actor known for playing the character “Screech” in the 1990s U.S. TV sitcom “Saved by the Bell” was back in a Wisconsin jail on Thursday, accused of violating probation after being freed last month following a conviction over a stabbing, officials said.

Dustin Diamond, 39, was being held at the Ozaukee County jail after being taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon, corrections officials said.

Authorities were investigating the alleged probation violation and Diamond will likely remain in jail in the meantime, Wisconsin Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said. He said he could not elaborate on the violation.

In April, Diamond was released from Ozaukee County jail a month early after serving three months for a barroom stabbing in Wisconsin. Diamond was freed after providing custodial maintenance in the jail under a program that awarded him 30 days of “good time,” officials said.

Diamond began serving a four-month jail sentence on Jan. 15 after he was convicted last year of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct in the incident in which he was accused of stabbing a man.

Diamond’s fiancée at the time, Amanda Schutz, was accused of pushing a woman who was harassing her and Diamond on Christmas night at the Grand Avenue Saloon in Port Washington, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee.

Police said Diamond stabbed a man with a switchblade during the ensuing fight, causing a non-life-threatening wound. Diamond said he pulled the knife to defend himself and Schutz.

Diamond and Schutz, who was found guilty of disorderly conduct, also were ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution to the stabbing victim.

Diamond, who lives in Port Washington, played socially awkward but brainy student Samuel “Screech” Powers on “Saved by the Bell,” which ran from 1989 to 1993.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)