L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley has announced he will not criminally prosecute actor Ryan O'Neal, who was arrested February 3rd for allegedly blowing away a newel post in an altercation with his son Griffin. Cooley cites "insufficient evidence" as the reason for dropping the case. Naturally, O'Neal's people are spinning this as vindication for their client, who maintains he was merely defending himself against an enraged Griffin. Griffin, however, charges that Ryan's actions led to the injury of his girlfriend, JoAnne Berry. In fact, Griffin hired harpyish lawyer Gloria Allred in hopes of nailing his father for allegedly smashing JoAnne in the face with a fireplace poker. Ryan has contended all along that Griffin was in fact the one who cracked JoAnne's skull with the iron implement. According to Griffin, the whole thing started because he had chained his drug-addict brother Redmond to the banister to keep him from doing more dope, and when Ryan discovered this he became unreasonable and violent. Didn't Griffin try to explain chaining his brother to the banister? Did they eschew rational interchange, going straight to the fireplace poker and the irresponsible discharge of fire-arms? I guess that's just how they do things in the O'Neal family.
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