Warrant issued for actor Nicholas Brendon's arrest

A warrant has been issued for actor Nicholas Brendon's arrest after he failed to submit urine samples as a term of his release from jail.

Brendon, 44, was arrested in Tallahassee in March after police say he damaged his room in the Hotel Duval, where he was staying the weekend he was a headliner at the ALT*Con pop culture festival at the North Florida Fairgrounds.

He was arrested on charges of damage to property criminal mischief after police say he caused $1,000 in damage to the room, smashing furniture and a porcelain figurine and flooding the bathroom.

The terms of his release included no alcohol or drugs, random urinalysis and alcohol checks once a week.

The warrant was issued April 8 after court records say he failed to submit random urinalysis March 25 and 30.

Pretrial release officials unsuccessfully attempted to contact Brendon and instructed his emergency contact to have him call in for his weekly phone appointment.

Formal charges were filed Wednesday by Assistant State Attorney A. Callaway Griffith.

He and talked exclusively to the Tallahassee Democrat after he was released from the Leon County Jail, saying he had been dealing with depression off and on and "stopped taking my meds a while ago, which was a mistake. It culminated yesterday (March 14) with my taking some sleeping pills and then going into a blackout."

He also said he had been sexually assaulted as a child by a teacher.

"From that moment my life changed immensely," he said. "I haven't talked about it because I didn't want to use it as a crutch, but I'm seeing as I get older that it did have a huge, huge effect on me."

Brendon released a statement through a spokeswoman that he was unaware of the warrant and had abstained from drugs and alcohol since the arrest.

"Nicholas was unaware of the warrant that was issued for his arrest. This is a huge misunderstanding and he's working with his legal team to correct the situation," according to the statement issued through social media. "He was receiving treatment during this time and also followed the conditions of his pre-trial release to the best of his knowledge. Since the incident in Tallahassee, he has been drug and alcohol free as requested by the court. There is a paper trail to support his efforts. He's looking forward to clearing up this situation and continuing his path to recovery."

Brendon was arrested in February in Fort Lauderdale on similar charges after he damaged a hotel room there. He said he would seek help after a similar October arrest in an Idaho hotel.

He appeared on the television shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from 1996 to 2003 and "Kitchen Confidential" in 2006. Most recently he has appeared in the CBS show "Criminal Minds" from 2007 to 2014.