LOS ANGELES -- The public unraveling of Charlie Sheen, having run through seemingly every other forum in Los Angeles, has rolled into Superior Court.
A judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday, stripping the troubled -- a term that appears increasingly inadequate -- television star of contact with his two youngest children and barring him from coming within 100 yards of his estranged wife.
The action by Judge Hank Goldberg came after Sheen's estranged wife, Brooke Mueller, filed a declaration chock-full of accusations against Sheen that might have dropped jaws a month ago but now seemed merely a confirmation of the bizarre and menacing personality on display in his nonstop media appearances.
"I am very concerned that (Sheen) is currently insane," Mueller wrote in the declaration, which included numerous claims of criminal conduct, such as allegations the actor discussed using child-support money to "knock off" enemies and that he threatened to stab her in the eye with a pen knife.
Los Angeles police said they were not investigating the accusations and considered the matter one for family court.
Police were summoned Tuesday night to Sheen's home when his twin toddler sons were handed over to Mueller. Sheen has rarely seen the boys in the past year, but took the boys Saturday and refused to return them.
A hearing is set for March 22. Lawyers for Mueller and Sheen did not immediately return calls for comment.
Text messages sent to Sheen on Wednesday morning for comment were not immediately returned.
Earlier, on the "Today" show, he said he was "very calm and focused" about having the children taken away but was ready to fight to get them back.
Moments after the "Today" interview, Sheen was asked by reporters outside his home whether the legal move came out of left field for him.
"It came out of the bleachers, actually," he said. "Yeah, I was told a restraining order was being delivered and I thought, 'OK, I can deal with that.' And it was revealed that it was something much more serious."
Asked why Mueller got the court order, he replied, "It's just silly. I think she's latching on to some of this recent press."
Sheen also addressed his 2-year-old sons, Bob and Max, saying, "You are in my heart and I love you."
In the declaration, Mueller wrote, "(Sheen) has made various bizarre, disturbing and violent statements to the media in the past week which cause me great fear for the safety of our children while in his care as he does not appear mentally stable."
The last few days have been filled with sometimes manic, sometimes violence-tinged media interviews by Sheen, part of a public campaign to disprove that he is a drug-using, reckless playboy who was unable or unfit to work on this season's final episodes of TV's No. 1 comedy.
Sheen's grandstanding has fascinated the public, with his Twitter account drawing close to 1 million followers a day after it was created.
Among Mueller's allegations about Sheen:
- He threatened to kill her repeatedly, including Sunday night when he told her, "I will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom!"
- Called his manager, Mark Berg, a "stoopid jew pig" and talked about killing him.
- Told airplane passengers during a recent trip to the Bahamas that he hated actress Denise Richards, his former wife, and was going to have her head shaved.
- Told Mueller during a rant in the Bahamas, "I'm untouchable! I'm Charlie Sheen! I'm more famous than Obama!"
Mueller and Sheen separated after a domestic violence incident in Aspen, Colo., in 2009. Sheen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor third-degree assault after the incident, in which Mueller told authorities that he threatened her with a knife at their holiday home.
In her new allegations, Mueller revealed it was not the first incident. In October 2009, she alleged that Sheen "knocked me to the floor, causing me to hit my head on the corner of a couch. I was knocked unconscious and required medical attention, including a CAT scan."
However, Mueller and their children moved back into the actor's home a few months ago, a decision Mueller described as "a big mistake" in her declaration.
According to the filing, Sheen shares the home with a porn star and a girlfriend.
Mueller acknowledges her own sobriety issues in the declaration. She said she "fell off the wagon" last week "in conjunction with (Sheen's) girlfriend."
She said she is in a day rehab treatment program, but that she can care for the children for four hours during the day and at night.
She told the court that she would be living with a sober companion, and that her mother would help with the twins' care.
She said she was too afraid to return to her Los Angeles home.
Comments