DA Considers Charges Against Ryan O'Neal

Prosecutors were considering Thursday whether to charge Ryan O'Neal with assault with a deadly weapon for firing a gun during a brawl with his son at the actor's Malibu home.

A sheriff's detective submitted results of an investigation to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office on Wednesday.

"The detective presented the charges that were based on the arrest," but did not make a formal recommendation, said Lt. Steve Smith of the Malibu-Lost Hills sheriff's station.

The case was under review, and it was unclear when or whether charges would be filed, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

O'Neal, 65, was arrested at his Malibu home on Feb. 3 for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm. He was freed on a $50,000 bond.

The actor has said he fired a warning shot to scare his 42-year-old son, Griffin, who had attacked him with a fireplace poker.

He said his son lashed out at him during a fight but he ducked and the poker struck Griffin's pregnant girlfriend. Joanna Berry needed stitches for a facial cut, her attorney said at a Wednesday news conference that Griffin O'Neal also attended.

Attorney Gloria Allred said her clients rejected the assertion that Ryan O'Neal acted in self-defense.

O'Neal's attorney, Mark Werksman, said Wednesday that his client suffered a cut hand and bruises to his arms and legs during the dispute, which was over how Griffin treated O'Neal's younger son, Redmond O'Neal.

Griffin O'Neal was found guilty of reckless boating in a 1986 accident that killed the son of film director Francis Ford Coppola. He also has pleaded no contest in two unrelated cases to drunken driving and shooting at the unoccupied car of an estranged girlfriend.