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Assault case against actor Ryan O'Neal dismissed
2007-05-25
Prosecutors decided on Friday not to file charges against actor Ryan O'Neal over an altercation with his son in February that ended in gunfire and the movie star's arrest. The 66-year-old actor was arrested on February 3 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm at his home during a fight with Griffin O'Neal that left his son's pregnant girlfriend, Joanna Berry, injured. A lawyer for the couple said Berry received eight stitches over her left eye and suffered an abrasion to her cornea, as well as a facial fracture and lacerations. O'Neal accused his 42-year-old son of being the aggressor and causing Berry's injuries, saying Griffin struck his own girlfriend by accident when he swung a fireplace poker at his father. The elder O'Neal, nominated for an Oscar for his work in 1970's "Love Story," told the Los Angeles Times he fired a gun into a stair banister as a warning shot in self defense when his son came at him with the poker. The clash began, O'Neal said, after he returned to his Malibu home from a 60th birthday party for his longtime friend and former companion, Farrah Fawcett. After an investigation by the Los Angeles County sheriff's department, county prosecutors decided to dismiss the case. "There were conflicting witness statements," said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the district attorney. "We believe there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt." Griffin O'Neal is the son of Ryan and his first wife, Joanna Moore, and is the brother of actress Tatum O'Neal. He was convicted of reckless boating in a 1986 accident that killed the son of director Francis Ford Coppola.
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