Former ‘Bachelorette’ Contestant James McCoy Taylor Arrested on Assault and Unlawful Restraint Charges – Warrant from 2024 Incident
James McCoy Taylor, the country singer and former contestant on Season 12 of The Bachelorette, was arrested on Friday on a Texas warrant for assault causing bodily injury and unlawful restraint. Online court records from Brazos County show he was booked into the Brazos County Jail on March 20, 2026, and released the same day on a $10,000 surety bond.
The charges stem from an alleged incident in April 2024. TMZ reports Taylor was taken into custody on the warrant. Still, details of the new case remain limited—no victim information or specifics on the alleged events have been released publicly yet. TMZ reached out to Taylor and police for comment, but hasn’t heard back.
Here’s the kicker: this isn’t Taylor’s first run-in with these charges. In 2023, he faced identical accusations—assault causing bodily injury and unlawful restraint—after an alleged encounter with a 19-year-old college student he met at a bar in the Northgate Entertainment District in Bryan, Texas. Police said he groped and forcibly kissed the woman, then threw her to the ground as she tried to leave.
Taylor pleaded guilty in April 2025. He received 80 hours of community service, a $1,000 fine plus court costs, anger management classes, no-contact orders with the victim, and a ban from the Northgate district. He lost his driver’s license temporarily, too.
Taylor competed on JoJo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette in 2016, building a following of over 100,000 on Instagram. He made headlines in 2021 when he threatened to sue media outlets for wrongly linking him to the January 6 Capitol riot. These days, he lives in Colorado with his partner, Kenzie Linden, and they are raising five young daughters together.
A longtime entertainment reporter covering reality TV stars told us: “Taylor’s past legal issues were already public after the 2023 case and guilty plea. This new warrant suggests unresolved fallout or a separate incident—either way, it keeps the spotlight on him for the wrong reasons.”
The timing revives scrutiny of his post-Bachelorette life, from his music career to his personal controversies—no updates on whether this violates his prior probation or no-contact terms.
Final Thought James McCoy Taylor’s latest arrest revives tough questions about accountability for reality stars after the cameras stop rolling. With a young family in Colorado and a history of similar charges, this could impact more than just headlines.
What do you think—should past patterns influence how new allegations are viewed? Have you followed Taylor since The Bachelorette? Drop your take in the comments below, and share if you’re tracking this story!