People News
Ryan O'Neal cleared of charges
By Stone Martindale
May 26, 2007, 17:39 GMT

Prosecutors have ruled not to file charges against actor Ryan O'Neal over a violent altercation with his son back in February that ended in gunshots and O'Neal's arrest, reports Reuters.

A fight with son Griffin O'Neal resulting in Griffin's pregnant girlfriend, Joanna Berry, becoming injured was the cause of the trouble.  O'Neal, at age 66 was arrested on February 3rd for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm at his Malibu home .

Berry reportedly received eight stitches over her left eye and suffered an abrasion to her cornea, as well as a facial fracture and lacerations, reported Reuters.

O'Neal laid the blame on his 42-year-old son causing Berry's injuries, saying Griffin struck Berry by accident when he swung a fireplace poker at his father.

Ryan O'Neal 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.

O'Neal said the trouble began after he returned home from a 60th birthday party for his former companion, Farrah Fawcett.

"There were conflicting witness statements," said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the district attorney to Reuters. "We believe there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt."

Griffin O'Neal has a volatile past. He is the son of Ryan and his first wife, Joanna Moore, and is Tatum O'Neal's brother.

In 1986 he was convicted of reckless boating in a tragic accident that killed the son of director Francis Ford Coppola.