Legal Commentary

What Was the Claimed Sheen Weapon and Who Had It?

By Jeralyn

As I wrote last night, the charges for which actor Charlie Sheen was arrested signal the use of a deadly weapon.

Now, ET says the Aspen Police Department spokeswoman has confirmed that some kind of weapon was allegedly involved. TMZ and OK report the same.

I'm calling first dibs. The question now: Was he trying to get the weapon away from her or was he threatening her with it? Given his lawyer's statement that he believes it will be shown that no criminality was involved, his wife's BAC being over the legal limit while his wasn't, and his wife's refusal to continue speaking with police, I won't be surprised if he's ultimately cleared. The Aspen District Attorney has not yet decided whether to file charges and has this to say:

“I am hearing the same rumors as you are hearing about Ms. Mueller being the aggressor, but I don’t have that evidence yet,” Mordkin speaks of Charlie’s wife to OK!, “I do know she is not speaking to the police for now. She may be compelled to cooperate.”

But, what if her testimony would incriminate her with respect to falsely reporting a crime? Surely, her lawyer would tell her to take the 5th at that point, unless she's granted immunity. If that happens, and it's still a big "if", her cooperation would help clear him.

Update; The tabloid rags are so clueless. One reports they are filing for divorce, another quotes his lawyer saying they are undergoing counseling and love each other very much. One publication that first says the wife was choked now says she was choked. And Radar trumpets with a huge headline Sheen's wife took out a restraining order against him after the incident.

It's called a protective order and while it operates as a restraining order, it had nothing to do with her request for one. The law mandates a protective order as a condition of bail in offenses where an allegation of domestic violence underlies the charge. She could have begged for one not to be imposed and it wouldn't have mattered. CRS 18-1-1001:

(1) There is hereby created a mandatory protection order against any person charged with a violation of any of the provisions of this title, which order shall remain in effect from the time that the person is advised of his or her rights at arraignment or the person's first appearance before the court and informed of such order until final disposition of the action. Such order shall restrain the person charged from harassing, molesting, intimidating, retaliating against, or tampering with any witness to or victim of the acts charged. ....

.....(5) Before a defendant is released on bail pursuant to article 4 of title 16, C.R.S., the court shall, in cases involving domestic violence as defined in section 18-6-800.3 (1), state the terms of the protection order issued pursuant to this section, including any additional provisions added pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, to the defendant on the record and the court shall further require the defendant to acknowledge the protection order as a condition of any bond for the release of the defendant. The prosecuting attorney shall, in such domestic violence cases, notify the alleged victim, the complainant, and the protected person of the order if such persons are not present at the time the protection order is issued.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 26, 2009 (boomark / email).