ASPEN — Two police officers — one former, the other current — involved in the Christmas Day arrest of Charlie Sheen have attracted the scrutiny of the actor’s defense attorneys, who are seeking to have some evidence dismissed from the domestic-violence case.
One motion filed in Pitkin County District Court, where Sheen is identified under his given name, Carlos Irwin Estevez, seeks to suppress statements Sheen made to Officer Rick Magnuson.
Prior to arresting him, Magnuson questioned Sheen, 44, in the basement of a West End home, according to a motion filed by Aspen lawyer Richard Cummins. It was at that residence that Sheen allegedly threatened his wife, Brooke Mueller, with a knife.
Magnuson, the motion says, questioned Sheen without advising him of his Miranda rights.
Another motion aims to preserve video surveillance from a February conversation between former Officer Valerie McFarlane and former Aspen Daily News editor Troy Hooper.
McFarlane, who interviewed Mueller twice on the day Mueller was allegedly threatened, resigned from the Aspen Police Department on Feb. 26. She stepped down after a one-day suspension that was the result of her apparent special treatment of Hooper when she gave him a ride home in the early morning of Feb. 19.
A conversation between the two was caught on surveillance tape, which led to Hooper’s departure from the Daily News.
The motion claims that McFarlane “will be a critical witness at trial,” and suggests the audio recording of her and Hooper could be “directly relevant to Officer McFarlane’s character for truthfulness” and “could be relevant impeachment evidence at trial.”
Sheen has pleaded not guilty to the felony domestic-violence charges. A jury trial is set July 21.
