Tatum O’Neal Released from Jail and Crediting Cops for “Saving” Her!
Posted on June 3, 2008
Oscar-winning actress, Tatum O’Neal was arrested yesterday for attempting to buy crack cocaine. O’Neal , 44, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and released yesterday. See Tatum’s arrest details here.
Tatum’s career had recently been on the rise, after years of battling drugs and alcohol. Sources say after Tatum’s brush with the law that she felt relieved and even happy.
O’Neal told the NY Post’s Andrea Peyser, “I’m still sober!” Tatum announced. “Just when I was about to change that and wreck my life, the cops came and saved me!” Tatum admitted.
“I was saved by the bell, by the guys in the Seventh Precinct.”
Regarding the reason she was seeking comfort in drugs, O’ Neal explained, “There’s no excuse for what I did,” Tatum honestly admitted.
“I lost my Scottish terrier, Lena,” three weeks ago. “That seemed to set me off.
“She got old. She got cancer. She was the fabric of our family. We had to let her go to heaven. My daughter and I had to put her down. It was too horrible for words.
“I couldn’t get out of it. I was going to my psychiatrist. I was doing everything I could do. I have the disease of alcoholism. It’s lifelong. I treat it every day by going to my 12-step program.”
But the loss of her 16-year-old pooch was too much. “It triggered that my mother passed away [from addiction] in ‘98. My father [actor Ryan O'Neal] and I are estranged.”
Tatum is so open and even detailed her account of how the drug deal went down, “One day, I’m walking aimlessly. I found myself doing the wrong thing.”
Tatum, 44, said while in her depressed state, she met Alan Garcia, 33, “a drug addict who was panhandling,” and bought coke. When told she was also charged with buying crack too, she seemed surprised. “It’s both?” she asked, surprised. “I didn’t even know what I was buying!”
Tatum, who has never been arrested or in jail before, says it was a wake-up call and she is so thankful she was caught.
So what do you guys think? Even with the gravity of the situation, do you feel for Tatum?
Images: AP
Source: news
One comment
What else could she do?
HER DOG PASSED AWAY?