AP Photo/Reed SaxonRedmond O'Neal has been guilty before. But not this time, he says.
The 24-year-old son of Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal pleaded not guilty to felony drug possession in connection with his April 5 arrest for allegedly having heroin on him when he took a friend to visit an inmate at a California lockup.
When officers stopped him outside for a routine vehicle check, the substance-abuse-battling young man admitted to having drugs in the car, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Station.
O'Neal has been cooling his heels in jail since the bust, except for a brief respite on Saturday, when he was granted permission to go to the family's Malibu home to visit Fawcett, who has been battling anal cancer that has spread to her liver. Reports on her current condition have varied from bad to worse, with spokesman Arnold Robinson finally saying Tuesday that there is no news.
The actress' son ducked even more jail time April 17 when he asked for and received mercy from the court for a probation violation (on a 2008 drug conviction) and was sentenced to a fourth stint in rehab.
O'Neal is scheduled to appear Thursday at a hearing at L.A.'s Airport Branch Courthouse to determine, considering his string of related arrests, if he is eligible for drug court, which could order him into a more stringent treatment program than the ones he has already participated in.