The son of actors Ryan O’Neal and the late Farrah Fawcett will undergo a mental health evaluation after refusing transport Friday from jail to court, where he was scheduled to appear on robbery, assault and drug charges.
O’Neal, 33, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court stemming from his May 8 arrest for allegedly threatening a Venice convenience store clerk with a knife, but refused to get on the bus from Men’s Central Jail, a court spokeswoman said. His case was then transferred to a courtroom that handles mental evaluations, she said.
O’Neal could face up to 10 years in state prison if convicted of second-degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a smoking device, possession of an injection/ingestion device and two counts of possessing a controlled substance, involving methamphetamine and heroin.
The robbery charge includes an allegation that he used a knife during the commission of the crime. The criminal complaint also alleges that he was previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Police said they found O’Neal in possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia when he was arrested near the convenience store in the wake of the 3 a.m. robbery attempt.
O’Neal has had a series of brushes with the law.
In 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating his probation in a case in which he pleaded no contest in 2011 to one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon and heroin possession.
O’Neal was released in October 2012 from a live-in drug rehabilitation program where he had spent a year. At the time, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz instructed O’Neal to remain on electronic monitoring for 90 days, undergo random drug testing and continue to see medical professionals as part of an “intensive outpatient” program, according to one of his attorneys, Richard Pintal.
O’Neal admitted in September 2011 that he violated his probation by using drugs while in a live-in drug rehabilitation program that he eventually completed. He had been sent to the facility after pleading no contest in August 2011 to one count each of heroin possession and possession of a firearm by a felon — charges that stemmed from a traffic stop in Santa Monica. He was sentenced in 2011 to spend a year in the drug program and to serve five years on probation.
He was also on probation at the time for a felony drug count stemming from his April 2009 arrest in a county jail parking lot in Castaic.
In 2010, he graduated from a drug court program for a pair of drug possession cases — one involving possession of heroin and methamphetamine and the other involving possession of meth.