Charlie Sheen Charged With Three Crimes for Assaulting Wife

Feb. 8, 2010— -- Actor Charlie Sheen got hit not with two and a half charges, but three.

Sheen was charged Monday with three crimes including felony menacing following his Christmas Day assault on his wife Brooke Mueller. Sheen, the star of the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men," was also charged with third-degree assault and criminal mischief.

Details of the case against the actor were not read in Aspen's Pitkin County District Court Monday, but the judge did lift a "no contact" portion of a mandatory protective order that kept Sheen from Mueller, allowing the two to leave the courthouse together. Sheen and Mueller married in 2008 and have twin sons.

Lawyers for Sheen and Mueller asked to have the order lifted; prosecutors did not object.

Sheen, 44, was arrested on Christmas Day for second-degree assault, menacing and criminal mischief after Mueller, 32, called 911 and tearfully choked, "My husband had me with a knife. I was scared for my life and he threatened me."

She described the knife as a "switchblade."

Sheen's attorney, Richard Cummins, filed a motion on Dec. 30 to dismiss the mandatory protective order, stating that Mueller and her attorney advised Cummins that they wanted it lifted.

"The protected person also wishes for the protection order to be terminated," read the document obtained by ABCNews.com.

In turn, the prosecutor filed a counter motion opposing the couple's request.

The next day, Cummins modified his request.

"Defendant respectfully requests that this court enter an order allowing for communication and cohabitation subject to Ms. Sheen obtaining a safety plan," the supplement read.

"Initially, they didn't want any of the restraining order," Mordkin said. "Then they said they only wanted to modify the portion of the order that doesn't allow them to communicate and have contact."

Mueller Drug Rumors Rampant

The supplement added: "Provisions relating to prohibition against harassment, molesting, intimidating, etc, abstention from consumption of alcohol and/or illegal drugs, and the provision relating to firearms shall remain in place and effect."

Since the motion was modified, Mordkin said his office has not filed any "formal opposition."

On Jan. 20, the judge signed an emergency order that allowed Sheen to visit Mueller, who had been hospitalized with pneumonia in Los Angeles. The order allowed the actor to communicate with his wife in the hospital unless she asked him to leave.

When Mueller was rushed to the hospital with a life-threatening fever, and later checked into a North Carolina rehab facility after her Jan. 26 release, rumors emerged that the former real estate agent was abusing drugs and alcohol.

Mueller was charged with a DUI in 1996 and cocaine possession in 2001.

Her mother Moira Fiore tried to set the record straight last week in the most recent issue of In Touch Weekly. She told the magazine Mueller had been rushed to the hospital because of a dangerous fever that resulted from having her wisdom teeth removed.

"The infections and pneumonia are what caused the shutting down of her organs," Fiore told In Touch. "Brooke was very sick."

Her stepfather, Jon Fiore, told Radar.com that Mueller checked into North Carolina's Two Dreams Outer Banks to recover from pneumonia.

"She is just there to heal herself from all the stress," he said last week. "There really wasn't any kind of drugs involved. Her body was in turmoil and she had a lot of stress, so she went there to rest and get away from everything."

It was Mueller and Sheen's past history of alcohol abuse that People magazine said led to a Christmas Eve spat that turned ugly during the early hours of Dec. 25.

In an audio recording of a 911 call, a woman who identifies herself as Brooke tells the dispatcher that her husband threatened her with a knife and added, "I thought I was gonna die for one hour."

When asked her husband's name, she waits before admitting "It's Charlie Sheen," and starts crying.

Christmas Gone Wrong

Sheen posted an $8,500 bond and was released from jail Christmas evening.

Soon after, the couple's lawyers were talking about how they wanted to work things out. Their infant sons, Max and Bob, were born March 14.

"They have two children together and they love one another," Sheen's attorney Cummins told media outlets the next day. "And they're going to work through what is a difficult time, and they're going to do that together and as privately as possible."

The following week, Mueller's lawyer Galanter told The Associated Press that Mueller is standing by the account she gave to police, but he said she didn't realize it would lead to her husband's arrest.

"Wives think the cops are going to break something up and they don't realize the husband is going to be taken to jail," Galanter said. "I will tell you that both parties want to attempt to work this out. Whatever was said and whatever happened, I'm chalking it up as one really bad night."

An arrest affidavit obtained by AP quoted Mueller as saying her husband pinned her on a bed, held a knife to her throat and told her, "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."

She said at least five times during the four-minute call that she wanted to file a report.

"It's happened before," she said, according to the affidavit.

Galanter, who once represented O.J. Simpson, said Mueller hired him "because she is a witness against her husband and she wants him to continue being her husband."

He called it "a very interesting legal conundrum. ... Events occurred. She gave a sworn statement to a law enforcement officer. She wants to work on her marriage and she wants to honor her legal obligations."

Sheen has also had his share of problems since the Christmas incident. Last Friday, his Mercedes was found overturned hundreds of feet down a cliff near his Sherman Oaks home.

Sheen had reported the car stolen, but there was no evidence that anyone was in the car when it went into the ravine.

Reuters contributed to this report.