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The former child actor just can’t stay out of trouble with the law.
By Laurie Ulster — Written on Jan 30, 2020
Shawn Weiss, who rose to fame as Greg Goldberg in The Mighty Ducks franchise has sadly become a meth addict who just got arrested — again — for burglary and being under the influence of a controlled substance. The former child star has been battling addiction and homelessness for the last few years, with a string of arrests along the way.
He started his career at age eight years old, and appeared in films and TV shows throughout the 1990s , and seemed to be making a good go of acting until recent years, when he fell into a downward spiral. What has happened to Shaun Weiss since his glory days as the Mighty Ducks’ goalie?
1. Weiss’ most recent arrest was just this week for breaking into a garage while high on meth.
The 41-year-old’s latest arrest happened this week, when he broke into a man’s garage in Van Nuys, California. The Marysville Police Department reports that Weiss “forced entry to gain access into the vehicle by shattering a window.”
He was taken into custody, at which point the police noted that he appeared to be high on methamphetamines, and was booked into the Yuba County Jail. He’s being held there and bail is set at $52,500.
2. He had a pretty good career going in the 90s.
Weiss’ first acting gig was in a Jell-O commercial with Bill Cosby (decades before Cosby’s arrest for multiple rapes) landed his first acting job as Elvis, one of the Playhouse Kids, on Pee-wee’s Playhouse in 1986. He did some guest spots on hit sitcoms like Charles in Charge, Webster and The Costy Show before landing the role of Greg Goldberg in The Mighty Ducks, and appeared in all three movies in the series.
After that, he co-starred in Heavyweights with Ben Stiller and Kenan Thompson. The movie was co-written by Judd Apatow, which no doubt helped land him a recurring role on Freaks and Geeks as a member of the band that Nick (Jason Segal) formed with buddies Daniel (James Franco) and Ken (Seth Rogen).
He did more guest spots after that, but then things started going downhill, and eventually the string of arrests began.
3. Shaun Weiss is a meth addict who can’t stay out of trouble.
Fans reeled when Weiss, already a meth addict, was picked up by police in August of 2017, just five days after being released from jail. A woman found him stumbling around empty lots near the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, and when the police caught up with him, he had meth in his possession. He was arrested and held on a $20,000 bond.
He should’ve still been in jail at that point, after being sentenced to serve 150 days, but he was released after only 12 due to overcrowding.
Less than six months later, he was arrested for shoplifting a few hundred dollars’ worth of merchandise from a Rite Aid in Los Angeles.
Then, in August of 2018, he was arrested again for being under the influence of drugs but was released a few hours later. He wrote a long and since-deleted Facebook post after that, explaining that he’d checked into rehab.
“I’m determined to return to return to my old self. My mind is set on health and well being. To all the bridges burned; to those who I have: lied to, taken advantage of, manipulated for selfish gains, stolen from… then led the search to help you find what I stole… Relax, I’ll buy you a new one. JUST KIDDING! Losting the privalage [sic] to share life with you is heavier than the guilt I must carry.”
4. One of his arrests was for stealing just $151 worth of merchandise.
In 2017, one of his arrests came after he stole only $151 worth of merchandise, from a Fry’s Electronics store. The reason he got that hefty 150 day-sentence in L.A. County Jail was because it was his second petty theft charge.
At the time, his manager Don Gibble said that Weiss “hopes jail will help him, and maybe while he is in jail he will write something.”
5. Even his friends can’t help him anymore.
In August of 2018, his pal Marni Gairhan, who’d been a friend for over 13 years, found him sleeping on her porch, not that long after he was arrested for public intoxication. She said he would talk about projects he was working on but none of them ever seemed to get made or finished, started a GoFundMe (which appears to be gone now) to pay for him to get into rehab, and contacted his niece, looking for help. Weiss wasn’t happy about that and started to distance himself from his former friends.
His remaining friends have been trying to get him into rehab, but say there are long waiting lists, and he makes things harder when he keeps getting into trouble with the law. Even when he does get a bit of clothing or money, they say, he gets robbed by other homeless people. One friend even bought him a van to give him a place to live, but apparently it was set on fire.
His friends say that he desperately needs detox, rehab, and medical and dental work. As a result of his methamphetamine addiction, he’s lost most of his teeth, which makes it difficult to eat.
6. He got lucky with his latest arrest and may get some help.
There may be a silver lining for Weiss, thanks to his choice of garage on his latest break-in. The home he broke into is owned by Lou Binninger, a man with a mission: he works with drug addicts in the Yuba County Jail where Weiss has been sent, hoping to help them by teaching classes and coordinating counseling.
Binninger had seen a strange man inside his garage so he called the police, and found Weiss inside his car after having smashed the window with a hammer. Weiss was talking to himself.
Binninger’s compassion led him to believe it was meant to be. “I call it a God incident,” he said. “it was a divine fit. He needed help and I can help him,” adding, “There’s help. So if he’s ready, we can help him.”
Laurie Ulster is a writer and TV producer.