Signs of trouble in TV star Kim Delaney’s life continue to grow with a report that she was arrested on a felony domestic violence-related charge after she tried to run over her husband with a car.
Delaney, the once beloved, Emmy-award winning star of “All My Children” and “NYPD Blue,” had reportedly been “fighting for two days” with her husband, James Morgan, before the alleged assault occurred Saturday at their home in Marina del Rey, TMZ reported.
However, TMZ reported Tuesday that neither Delaney nor Morgan will be charged in the incident, following the couple’s appearance in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Prosecutors said they did not have sufficient evidence to move forward against either of them.
Still, the circumstances of the couple’s arrest sounded alarming enough to raise concerns about Delaney’s tumultuous personal history.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ that Delaney, 63, called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Friday night and made a domestic violence report against Morgan. He reportedly took off but returned the following morning, at which point Delaney called the police again because she wanted him to leave.
But when deputies arrived, Morgan offered up his account of events and showed them a video of her trying to hit him with her car, TMZ reported. After deputies spoke to both spouses, they decided to arrest both of them.
The felony assault charge against Delaney has to do with her alleged actions, which had the possibility of causing great bodily injury, TMZ reported. Morgan, meanwhile, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, stemming from the alleged fight Friday night.
Since Delaney’s arrest, people on social media have expressed shock at this turn of events, with some remembering her as Jenny Gardner in “All My Children” in the early 1980s, the beautiful, kind and sensible high school girl whose presence was described as “heavenly.”
“My teenage crush,” one person proclaimed on a Fox News Facebook post about her arrest.
But others said people shouldn’t be shocked at the legal troubles that have plagued Delaney since the early 2009s. They say aspects of her real life more accurately mirror Diane Russell, the detective she played on “NYPD Blue” on and off for nine seasons. In the show, Delaney’s Russell struggles with alcoholism.
Indeed, Delaney’s personal life has been marred by what appears to be a pretty entrenched drinking problem, which has affected her career and led to repeated brushes with the law, the Daily Mail and other outlets have reported.
Delaney was first arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in 2002, to which she pleaded no contest. Later that year, she was dropped from a leading role in “CSI: Miami” and checked herself into rehab the following year, limiting her her return to “NYPD Blue,” Entertainment Weekly reported at the time.
Delaney’s alcohol-related issues escalated in 2005, when she lost custody of her son Jack Cortese, who was then 15, because he said she put him in danger by forcing him to ride with her in the car when she was drinking. Six years later, Delaney was pulled off stage at an event honoring former Defense Secretary Robert Gates after she delivered an incoherent and slurred speech, leading attendees to believe that she was intoxicated, the Daily Mail said.
Then in January 2024, she was sued by a motorcyclist who claimed she fled the scene of an accident after allegedly crashing her car into him in in November 2022, the Daily Mail reported. In court documents witnesses alleged that Delaney was driving erratically prior to the crash and that she appeared to be under the influence of substances.
This story has been updated.