Actress Tatum O'Neal Arrested in Alleged Crack Cocaine Buy
Actress Tatum O’Neal was arrested last night for allegedly buying crack cocaine from a street dealer on the lower East Side of New York City, a few blocks from her luxury apartment.
O’Neal, 44, initially told police she had been researching a part after she was allegedly seen by officers handing money to the dealer, reports the New York Daily News. But when police, who had been conducting a street sweep, searched her, they reportedly found a bag of crack cocaine, a bag of regular cocaine and an used crack pipe.
At that point, unnamed sources told the newspaper, O’Neal changed her story, tearfully pleading for a break. “I’ve been clean for a long time,” she reportedly told the officers. “Today was the first time I was relapsing, but you guys saved me! Can you let me go?”
She was charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal possession of a controlled substance.
O’Neal is the daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal and the ex-wife of tennis star John McEnroe. She famously won an Oscar, at age 10, for her supporting role playing alongside her father in the 1973 movie Paper Moon.
“In her memoir, A Paper Life, O’Neal revealed that her addiction to heroin in 1995 led to her losing custody of her children to McEnroe. She also claimed that her mother, Joanna Cook Moore, was a raging alcoholic and that her father physically and emotionally abused her,” the newspaper recounts.
She was released without any bail at her arraignment today, and the prosecution is recommending that she get drug treatment, reports the Associated Press.
Additional coverage:
New York Post: “Tatum in Coke Arrest”
CNN: “O’Neal in 2004: Drugs were always around me”
