Ryan O'Neal Pleads Guilty To Meth Charge

LOS ANGELES — Ryan O'Neal has pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge.

He entered the plea in a Malibu courtroom Friday morning and was ordered into an 18-month drug diversion program.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office says the case will be dismissed if O'Neal successfully completes the program.

The 67-year-old, Oscar-nominated actor was arrested in September along with his son, Redmond, and was later charged with felony methamphetamine possession. Sheriff's deputies had searched the actor's home while doing a check on Redmond O'Neal, who was on probation for a previous drug conviction.

Ryan O'Neal was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for 1970's "Love Story." Redmond, 23, is his son from a relationship with Farrah Fawcett.

Comments

[TallyLass]

What I find especially heinous is that he has destroyed his children, by doing drugs with them. If he had been a regular person, the kids would been taken and put in protective custody. Those kids didn't have a chance with him or Farrah.

[Unrepentantliberal]

Meth and eligibility for an AARP membership don't mix. Come to think of it, meth and life don't mix with each other. Good grief old man, give it a rest.

[Wiserone]

Maybe Ryan should hook up with Sherry Johnson, of the Wasilla, Alaska fame.

[Wiserone]

We don't 'have' a drug culture, it IS our culture.

[InternationalObserver]

How on earth do people think they can try Meth and it will turn out alright? Anyone with any connection to recreational drug culture knows that Meth is a dead end. There is no 'poster boy/girl' for Meth ie no-one you can say "Oh, XX is doing Meth but they're okay, it hasn't hurt them". Meth @#$%'s everyone up - end of story...

If you know someone on Meth they will ... well, check out the scene when Jack Black is tied to a tree in 'Tropic Thunder'. That's what O'Neal will do when the Hollywood money runs out but he needs more meth...

[truthyguy]

This guy should write a do-it-yourself book on how to screw up your entire professional and personal life beyond any chance for repair.

[MsLiz]

Next season on Celebrity Rehab . . . .

[SabrinaFair]

LOL.

[AnnfromCA]

Man, talk about a downward spiral in life.

[Nikola Tesla]

Why are we STILL wasting our hard earned tax dollars chasing consenting adults who chose to use drugs, while Wall Street criminals rob us blind!

What a joke our criminal justice system has become.

I hope all you PRUDES are happy seeing you $$$$ wasted.

[JimR]

I am for legalizing certain drugs, but not meth.

[Raco]

Touche. Well played, N.T.

[PaxMundis]

Meth is a drain on health care and police forces, and its very production can cause extreme environmental damage. So pardon me if I don't feel too sorry for the people who get put in jail for using it.

[SabrinaFair]

Abolutely right Pax. This drug not only destroys people, it destroys neighborhoods. I saw a documentary on A&E showing how meth labs turn up in the poorest to the most affluent neighborhoods.

And by the time they are detected, they have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of this drug, and have subjected the surrounding neighborhood to being exposed to toxic chemicals.

So this is not a victimless crime.

[SabrinaFair]

All I can do is shake my head at reading this. A 67-year-old man still using drugs.

There is no question in my mind that Ryan O'Neal has a drug problem. The story about him taking the drugs from his son so that he wouldn't use sounded ridiculous back when they first busted them.

If he had wanted to stop his son from using he wouldn't have put them on his bedroom nightstand. He would have flushed them, or living in Malibu, tossed them into the Pacific.

Honestly, I think he turned to drugs to block out the disappointment over his career and the fact that he has three adult children, two of them don't speak to him anymore, two of him he is alleged to have physically assaulted, and all of them are addicts.

That's one heck of a legacy.

[harriettubman]

What the heck can his kids put on his epitaph? They won't be able to find the words.

[HARVIN]

I'd snort rails with Ryan and Son.

[missjabez]

Then you must be hard up for things to do.

[HARVIN]

Hey lover.
I'm real hard up.
Where you been?
You can make me right again,
Make my world make sense again,
Make me want to believe again.

[missjabez]

Is it just me or is 67 to old to be hitting the crack pipe? He needs to straighten himself out.

[GlennInVenice]

Perhaps 67 IS the reason he is hitting the meth pipe. Crack is a different substance by the way.

The question I have is, how did Ryan's actions threaten the state? At 67 I think the man should be able to decide how to live the rest of his life, how to medicate his body and brain, and how to deal with the reality of the last short leg of his existence. I agree that the choice is a bit sad but so mortality and all that comes with it.

[harriettubman]

Is this the same man who did a horrible job of raising all of his kids but denies it? Is this the man whose put every female first in his life instead of his children? Is this the man who said police came into his house and the dr*gs weren't his? Ryan, you're a loser. I don't care how many movies you've made. You've ruined the lives of each one of your children. You'd think by the time Redmond came along you would've adopted some parenting skills but no, it's not in you.

[JhNyc]

Patrick is a very good guy, and was, fortunately, raised by his mother.

[SabrinaFair]

I absolutely agree. Talk about toxic parents. And he is totally in denial about his role in why three out of his four adult children are addicts. And why two of them don't have anything more to do with him.

Parental denial is nothing new to me. I am recently estranged from my narcissistic mother, who takes absolutely no responsibility for her actions, which have resulted in that estrangement. It was sad to finally let go of her, but sometimes you have to do the most difficult things in order to protect yourself from further harm.

Sometimes, I think the world would be a much better place if we could choose our parents. Ryan O'Neal is the poster child for that.

[fanifesu]

Every time is see a mugshot of this guy i'm never surprised. I'm surprised he has any money left at this point, but if he wants to turn into Jeff Conoway, let him.

[ColoradoDan]

A sad time indeed.

Barry Lyndon is one of the finest films ever made. These should be golden years for a guy who's had such a fortunate life. His son did one pretty good film way back when as well ... The Escape Artist? After that it seems he was in a lot of trouble.

His future is up to him. Just sad.