Actor Charlie Sheen last night pleaded guilty to assault after a Christmas Day argument with his wife Brooke Mueller.
At the Pitkin Count Courthouse, in Aspen, Colorado, Sheen, 44, was sentenced to 30 days in a rehabilitation centre, 30 days of probation and 36 hours of anger management.
At one point it seemed he was facing up to three years in jail, however as part of his plea deal with prosecutors, more serious charges – felony menacing and criminal mischief – were dropped against the Two and a Half Men actor.
Sheen’s lawyer Yale Galanter told reporters outside court that Sheen would be back at work on the set of TV comedy Two and a Half Men on Tuesday after signing a new contract.
“I look forward to complying with the court’s decision, getting on with my life and putting this behind me.”
However, a former Aspen police officer who interviewed Brooke Mueller, and took photos after the incident, said she was “appalled” that Sheen got the “lightest possible sentence imaginable.”
“I wish that the judge could have seen what Mrs. Sheen looked like on that Christmas Day,” said Valerie McFarlane, who lost her job with the Aspen Police Department earlier this year in an unrelated matter.
Brooke, 33, claimed Sheen had pulled a knife on her after drinking heavily on December 25 last year.
A police report quoted Mueller saying Sheen held a switchblade knife to her throat as he held her down on her bed.
In the report it was alleged that Sheen told his former wife: “You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I’ll kill you. Your mother’s money means nothing. I have ex-police I can hire who know how to get the job done and they won’t leave any trace.”
An Aspen police officer later wrote that he saw “red marks on the upper part of the front of her [Mueller’s] neck.”
The estranged couple are now set to proceed with their divorce, which was initiated earlier this year.
In mid June, it was reported that the couple had arrived at a divorce settlement.
Sheen and wife enjoyed threesomes with another woman, it has been claimed.
A source revealed: “Brooke is bisexual. She and Charlie have had more than one woman share their bed in the short time they’ve been married.”
The insider told a US website: “Some of the women they slept with also did drugs with them.”
However, they reportedly held back filing for a divorce immediately, so as not give the prosecution in Sheen’s assault case additional ammunition.
He found himself on the wrong side of the law several times during the 1990s in cases related to drugs, domestic violence and prostitution.
In 1997, the actor was tried for attacking his then girlfriend, Brittany Ashland, at his California home.
He has also been accused of assaulting his ex-wife actress Denise Richards, a former James Bond girl.
