Charlie Sheen spends Christmas in jail following domestic violence charges

Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller

Actor Charlie Sheen was arrested on domestic violence charges Friday morning. The Two and a Half Men star, was booked am on felony charges of second-degree assault and menacing, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief, all of which were “coupled with a domestic violence component,” the Aspen Police Department said.

Police arrested the 44 year old after an emergency call at 11:20 am from a house in the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado. An ambulance went to the house, but no one was taken to hospital. He was released from jail at 7 pm after paying $8,500 bail. Platoon and Wall Street star is due in court next on Feb. 8, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.

Earlier in the day, police received a 911 call at about 8:30 am regarding a domestic violence situation at 320 West Hallam Street in Aspen. Officers investigated and booked Sheen. The victim, thought to be his wife Brooke Mueller, was not transported to the hospital. Guardian.co.uk reports that Sheen is thought to have become angry after he and his wife began drinking on Christmas morning. The row escalated at their rented house in Aspen and grabbing her around the throat, Sheen is alleged to have violently shoved his wife.

Stan Rosenfield, Sheen’s spokesman, declined comment except to say: “Don’t be misled by appearances. Appearances and reality can be as different as night and day. It would benefit everyone not to jump to any conclusion.”

Colorado attorney Richard Cummins, who is representing Sheen, cautioned against any rush to judgement. “I think at the end of the day it will be much ado about nothing,” he told the Associated Press. “I don’t think there’s any criminality about what went on. The February court date may be to determine whether a case goes forward or not.”

The son of actor Martin Sheen and brother of actor-director Emilio Estevez has had a run-in with the law. In 1996, he was detained and charged with attacking a girlfriend at his Southern California home. She claimed she had been knocked unconscious at his home. He was later put on two years probation after pleading no contest. That incident followed another, six years earlier, when he accidentally shot his then-fiancée, Kelly Preston, in the arm. The couple split up shortly afterwards.

Mr Sheen married Brooke Mueller, 32, in 2008. The former actress and real estate agent gave birth to their first children, twin boys, in March. Sheen, whose real name is Carlos Estevez, also has two daughters by his second wife, actress Denise Richards, 38. Their four-year marriaged ended in 2006 in a bitter divorce when the actress was pregnant with their second daughter. In the past Richards accused him of threatening her with violence.

In a court filing in April 2006, Denise requested a restraining order against her husband, and alleged that Charlie had abused prescription drugs, visited porn websites, gambled compulsively and threatened to kill her. Last year Charlie apologized to her for an abusive voicemail he left for her during their separation.

In the message, which was leaked on the Internet, he said he hoped she ‘rots in f***ing hell’ and called her a ‘f***ing c***’.

Sheen is best known for his starring role as a wealthy, womanizing Malibu bachelor on the bawdy CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. It has undoubtedly been one of US TV’s most popular shows and made Charlie Sheen America’s highest paid TV star in 2008, raking $825,000 per episode. He has never made any secret of his “bad boy” past: it is an open joke that his character, Charlie Harper, is loosely based on the actor’s own womanising, heavy-drinking exploits.

In 1998, Sheen’s father turned him in for violating his parole after a cocaine overdose sent him to hospital. Subsequently arrested for drinking and drug driving, he went back to rehab on doctor’s orders.