Redmond O’Neal, the son of actor Ryan O’Neal and the late Farrah Fawcett, will be released from prison and sent to a residential drug-treatment program, a Los Angeles judge ruled today.
O’Neal, 25, has been in jail since December 29 when he was arrested for an alleged probation violation.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan said he expects O’Neal to enter a sober living house after he finishes the live-in program.
“We all want you to do well, but it’s up to you,” the judge said.
O’Neal is due back in court on March 3 in Los Angeles.
One of O’Neal’s attorneys, Richard F. Pintal, told reporters outside the court that he expects his client to be moved from jail to the residential centre within a couple of days.
“Redmond’s made considerable progress in the 30-plus days he’s been in custody,” Pintal said. “Redmond’s earned this. It wasn’t perfunctory.”
O’Neal was admitted last April to a drug court program in connection with two drug-related arrests – one involving possession of heroin and methamphetamine and the latter involving possession of methamphetamine.
He was sentenced in a third case to a minimum of a year in a residential drug-treatment program and three years’ probation following his no-contest plea last September to a felony drug charge stemming from his arrest in a visitors’ parking lot at a Los Angeles county detention centre.
His mother, Farrah Fawcett, died June 25 after a lengthy battle with cancer.