The sheen may be off the marriage, but Sheen's not yet off the hook.
Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller appeared this afternoon in an Aspen court, where the actor was formally charged with three counts for his alleged Christmas Day knife-wielding attack on his wife.
Sheen was rung up on suspicion of felony menacing, misdemeanor third-degree assault and misdemeanor criminal mischief. He did not immediately enter a plea.
Due to a protective order issued in the wake of the incident, the duo had been barred from contacting each other—though not from seeing each other. But at the request of the reconciliation-seeking couple, the judge relaxed that order during today's hearing.
Sheen and Mueller are now free to communicate and otherwise remain in contact with each other, something they were previously prohibited from doing.
Case in point: Both parties arrived separately to the courthouse—Sheen, donning sunglasses and a dark coat, entered through the back, while Mueller, dressed in a black pencil skirt, pink sweater and black scarf, arrived through the side of the building after spending the weekend in town.
But there are some strings attached: Sheen is still prohibited from drinking alcohol, harassing Mueller or possessing firearms.
The embraced after the hearing and left without addressing reporters.
The hearing capped off a messy couple of weeks for the Sheens.
Mueller arrived refreshed from a brief hospitalization for pneumonia and emergency oral surgery after spending last week at a spa—not, as rumored, in rehab.
On Friday, the Two and a Half Men star was visited by the cops, albeit not, in what must have been a nice change of pace, for his own doing, after his Mercedes was stolen and found in a ravine off Mulholland Drive.
Meanwhile, Sheen's life had already regained some sense of normalcy prior to today's hearing. While Mueller was recuperating out of town, he was able to move back into their once-shared home to take care of their twin boys.
The couple, accompanied by Mueller's mother, immediately left the courthouse and headed to the airport for a flight by to Los Angeles on his chartered plane.
Sheen is due to return to court March 15 for his arraignment.
(Originally published Feb. 8, 2010, at 2:17 p.m. PT)
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