Sheen, wife to reconcile?

LOS ANGELES - Lawyers for Charlie and Brooke Sheen said the couple want to reconcile despite her telling police that he threatened her with a knife, which Sheen denies.

"They're very much in love," Brooke Sheen's attorney, Yale Galanter, said. "They want to try to work it out and want to have the best shot at doing that."

Charlie Sheen's attorney, Richard Cummins, confirmed that his client wants to reconcile. Cummins said that he is asking a judge to modify a restraining order that prevents the couple from having contact.

The couple's desire to reconcile was first reported by TMZ.com.

Charlie Sheen, 44, was arrested on Christmas Day in Aspen, where the couple was on vacation. Brooke Sheen, 32, told police that he threatened her during an argument that started when she said she wanted a divorce.

Charlie Sheen told police that the couple slapped each other and that he snapped two pairs of her eyeglasses in front of her, but he denied threatening her with a knife.

He faces charges of felony menacing, domestic violence, second-degree assault and criminal mischief and is free on $8,500 bond. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8 in Aspen.

Galanter said yesterday that Brooke Sheen is standing by the account she gave police, but he said that she didn't understand at the time that it would lead to her husband's arrest.

"Wives think the cops are going to break something up and they don't realize the husband is going to be taken to jail," Galanter said.

"I will tell you that both parties want to attempt to work this out," Galanter said. "Whatever was said and whatever happened, I'm chalking it up as one really bad night."

An arrest affidavit quoted Brooke Sheen as saying that her husband pinned her on a bed, held a knife to her throat and told her, "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you. Your mother's money means nothing, I have ex-police I can hire who know how to get the job done and they won't leave any trace."

In an audio recording of a 9-1-1 call, a woman who identifies herself as Brooke tells the dispatcher that Charlie Sheen threatened her with a knife and added, "I thought I was gonna die for one hour."

She said at least five times during the four-minute call that she wanted to file a report. "It's happened before," she said, according to the affidavit.

Galanter said that Brooke hired him "because she is a witness against her husband and she wants him to continue being her husband."

He called it "a very interesting legal conundrum. . . . Events occurred. She gave a sworn statement to a law-enforcement officer. She wants to work on her marriage and she wants to honor her legal obligations."

Asked if she would testify against her husband, Galanter said, "It's not going to come down to that." He declined to elaborate.

Galanter also declined to comment on Charlie Sheen's statement to police that his wife abuses alcohol.

Galanter said that Brooke Sheen was still in Aspen on Wednesday with the couple's twin boys, who were born in March. Galanter said that he was not concerned that social services might intervene out of concern for the children.

"These kids are in probably the most loving, nurturing, wholesome, healthy environment I have ever seen," he said, describing their mother as "doting."

Social services officials in Aspen said that state law forbids them from speaking publicly about a case.

Cummins said that he did not know Charlie Sheen's whereabouts.

Galanter said that he's optimistic about the future of the couple's relationship.

"They are madly in love with one another, they have beautiful babies together and there's no reason they shouldn't be able to have a long, fruitful, healthy life with one another," he said.

Charlie Sheen is the star of CBS' "Two and a Half Men," which held steady in the ratings this week.

The sitcom's full cast was expected to resume production Monday after a holiday break, a person close to the show said yesterday, on condition of anonymity.

"Two and a Half Men," TV's top-rated comedy, drew an estimated 11.1 million viewers Monday for a repeat episode, close to last year's audience, according to preliminary Nielsen Co. ratings.

Brooke Sheen is a real-estate investor. The couple married in May 2008.