Charlie Sheen, Brooke Mueller head to court, then he heads for Washington, D.C.
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Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller were in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday morning for a child custody hearing, while across town in Santa Monica, Sheen lawyer’s made their argument that the actor’s $100-million lawsuit against his former ‘Two and a Half Men’ employers should be handled in the court system instead of through arbitration.
Sheen went to court seeking full custody of their 2-year-old twin sons after Mueller last week refused a drug test required as part of their custody deal. The actor is also submitting to regular testing while he’s while on the road with his ‘Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option’ one-man show.
While no decision was immediately made public, and attorneys for both sides declined to provide details of the proceeding, TMZ reported that no changes had been made to the couple’s existing custody agreement.
Sheen had arrived in downtown L.A. on Tuesday with remaining ‘goddess’ Natalie Kenly, who sat on a bench outside the courtroom during the hearing. The proceeding was closed at the request of Mueller’s attorney, who argued that privacy was ‘in the best interest of the children’ because of ‘questions of abuse and other inflammatory and emotional issues.’ As the public filed out, Sheen reportedly fist-bumped a reporter who’d been in the audience.
After the hearing, Sheen headed for Van Nuys Airport to catch a private flight to Washington, D.C., where he has an 8 p.m. EDT curtain call. He’ll be cutting it close, TMZ said, after he and Kenly boarded the plane about 11:20 a.m.
Mueller and Sheen have been separated since his Christmas 2009 arrest on domestic violence charges, with the actor filing for divorce in February after a deal including $55,000 a month in child support was negotiated. Mueller’s drug-test refusal Friday through her lawyer -- considered the equivalent of dirty results -- came in the wake of reports that she’d been calling friends to ask for a clean urine sample, and that she’d tried unsuccessfully to hock a couple of big-ticket items for cash at an Inglewood pawn shop. Reports Monday had her back in rehab, with the kids in her family’s care.
Sheen, meanwhile, has seen mixed results on the road, getting slapped by a Warner Bros. lawyer after saying that he’d been in discussions to return to ‘Two and a Half Men.’
The Santa Monica hearing continued Tuesday after a lunch break, though it was unclear whether the judge would rule immediately on where Sheen’s claim would be heard.
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-- Christie D’Zurilla
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Top photo: Brooke Mueller, estranged wife of actor Charlie Sheen, is escorted away from family court in downtown L.A. by her attorney Tuesday. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press
