>>>
all right, but let's begin this half hour with the newly released 911 call that led to the christmas day arrest of
charlie sheen
, the highest paid actor on television.
nbc
's
george lewis
has details.
>>
reporter: the call went out from
sheen
's house in aspen, colorado, just after 8:30
christmas morning
.
sheen
's wife, brooke
mueller
, saying she was terrified, pleading for help, claiming
sheen
threatened her with a
switchblade knife
.
>>
okay, tell me exactly what happened.
>>
my husband had me -- with, with, with a knife, and i was feared for my life and he threatened me.
>>
okay. are you guys separated right now?
>>
yeah, right now. we have people that are separating us, but i have to file the report or else --
>>
are there other people there? does he still have the knife?
>>
yeah, he does, but there are still other people there.
>>
reporter: reportedly, that includes their twins and nanny, although there is no mention of them on the call. in a sworn affidavit, a
police officer
says
sheen
had a folding knife in a
travel bag
but "denied threatening
mueller
with a knife or strangling her."
sheen
says his wife had been drinking, that they began arguing after she threatened to divorce him and take the children. in a second affidavit, she told an officer that
sheen
grabbed her by the throat, holding the knife to her neck, saying "you better be in fear. if you tell anybody, i'll kill you."
>>
you are a bad,
bad boy
.
>>
and yet, you're always the one getting spanked.
>>
reporter: but as a real-life
bad boy
suspect, he spent a few hours behind bars on christmas day before he made bail and left for
los angeles
. and the next day,
mueller
was photographed smiling, no apparent marks on her neck. now, "people" magazine is reporting
charlie sheen
and his wife are seeking help.
>>
sources tell "people" that charlie and brooke are actually headed towards
marriage counseling
, and in fact, charlie's actually going to undergo therapy for
anger management
as well.
>>
reporter: the district attorney's office says that any decision on whether to file charges won't be made until just before
sheen
's first court appearance in february. for "today,"
george lewis
,
nbc
news,
los angeles
.
>>
dan abrams
is
nbc
's chief legal analyst, and
janice
min is former editor of "
us weekly
." good morning to both of you.
>>
good morning.
>>
good morning, amy.
>>
i have a question for you. is
charlie sheen
facing more jail time here possibly or is this more of a
public relations
nightmare for him?
>>
oh, there's no question, if the prosecutors move forward on the charges upon which he was arrested on, absolutely, he could face up to eight years in prison. and even if they move forward on those charges and they cut some sort of deal, i don't think there's any way that
charlie sheen
could get away with no jail time.
>>
then the question, dan, is what's the likelihood prosecutors will move forward with this, especially if his wife is now not cooperating with him?
>>
yeah, this is where it gets tough, right? because if she now decides she doesn't want to move forward, that makes it tricky for the prosecutors. they still could move forward. after all, this would be the people of the
state of colorado
against
charlie sheen
, not
charlie sheen
against his wife. so, if they decide they have the evidence, even if she decides not to cooperate, they could still move forward. no question it makes it harder. the last thing they want is a
hostile witness
as the primary witness against him, but there have certainly been cases where a spouse or a girlfriend has decided that they don't want to help, and yet, prosecutors still move forward with the case.
>>
janice
,
charlie sheen
has certainly seen tough times before.
>>
yes.
>>
and he's made it through them, but at a certain point, i mean, he is television's highest paid actor, his comedy show is the most viewed. at what point is too much bad behavior enough where it ends up destroying his career?
>>
you know, with
charlie sheen
, i honestly don't think it matters. he's proven himself to be teflon all these years. this is -- he's assaulted women before. he accidentally shot
kelly preston
when they were engaged. he's used hookers. he's overdosed on cocaine. i mean, all along the way he's gotten more roles, he has been nominated for an emmy, a
golden globe
. i think the public has learned to separate the private
charlie sheen
from the public
charlie sheen
. the thing, is he is incredibly talented, people like watching him on tv. in many ways, his character, all the best roles are those of the sort of loveable
bad boy
.
>>
right. does he get a pass because he has the
bad boy
persona?
>>
i think so, and women often forgive these
bad boys
. i see we're showing the "ferris buehler" clip now. that is the
charlie sheen
they like and remember, the sort of
bad boy
who they're irriskably drawn to.
>>
dan, let me ask you about the 911 call. we obviously heard his wife make some significant accusations, saying he was trying to kill her, held a knife to her throat. we mentioned she's now not cooperating with police, but it's been said that she was severely intoxicated at the time of that call. does that impact at all a prosecutor's decision to move forward with this?
>>
only in terms of whether they believe it actually happened, meaning, if they think that she was so drunk that she might be making up the story, then absolutely. but if they just think she was drunk and that they
still believe
that's what happened, then it absolutely does not matter. it's going to come down to, do they believe what she said on the 911 tape, do they believe that what she told the police is what actually happened. if they believe that and they think they can back it one the 911 tape,
physical evidence
, with the observations of the
police officers
, then they might still move forward, as i said, even without her assistance.
>>
and
janice
, if things don't move forward with their marriage -- we don't know exactly what's going to happen between
charlie sheen
and his wife -- how much will that affect his
public image
at this point as well, if there's a custody battle -- there are two
little boys
involved in this as well.
>>
look at -- he became the highest paid actor on tv in the midst of a nasty divorce from
denise richards
, and the fascinating thing there is
denise richards
got thrown under the bus. she's the one who got vilified in the press. i think he's the bigger star. she, without
charlie sheen
as her husband, she's anonymous. so, i think that he will survive this, you know? i think it speaks a lot to how we view badly behaved men in this country, but he will survive, his show will continue to get ratings, probably bigger ratings, and he'll probably continue to get nominated for more awards.
>>
all right.
janice
min,
dan abrams
, thank you both.
>>>
and now let's get a
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