Charlie Sheen's  police escort to his show in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday is under investigation by state officials after it emerged the move was not properly authorized.

The former Two and a Half Men star was running late to his one-man comedy gig after he was held up in a Los Angeles court following a custody hearing with his estranged wife Brooke Mueller.



The troubled actor faced a mad dash across the U.S. to make it to his concert on the east coast in time and revealed on his Twitter.com account that he had been given special treatment by cops upon landing at Dulles International Airport in D.C..

He wrote, "In car with police escort in front and rear! Driving like someone's about to deliver a baby! Cop car lights #Spinning!"

He also posted a picture taken from the window of the car showing the police lights up ahead.

But Sheen's blog posts have landed the officers involved in trouble with department bosses - according to local councilman Phil Mendleson, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier did not grant permission for the escort.

On Friday, spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump confirmed the department's internal affairs unit was investigating the incident. The police representative refused to comment further on the controversy.

Sheen eventually took to the stage at the D.A.R. Constitution Hall an hour late.

Charlie Sheen pleads guilty to assault

Actor Charlie Sheen pleaded guilty yesterday to assaulting his wife last Christmas and was sentenced to 30 days in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation in California.

Under a plea deal reached with prosecutors in Aspen, Sheen also agreed to three months probation in which he cannot consume any drugs, other than prescription medication, and cannot drink an excessive amount of alcohol. He also was ordered to attend 36 hours of anger management classes.





Pitkin County District Judge James C. Boyd sentenced Sheen to a 30-day jail term, but suspended it provided Sheen successfully completes his probation and the drug and alcohol rehab program in California.

Sheen, 44, was quiet through much of the court proceeding. When asked how he pleaded, Sheen said �guilty as charged, your honour.�

In a statement issued following the court proceeding, Sheen said he was �very grateful� to the court.

�I look forward to complying with the court�s decision, getting on with my life and putting this behind me,� he said.

The star of the CBS network�s sitcom �Two And a Half Men� is to serve his 30-day stint in rehab time at a Promises treatment centre in California, one of which is located in the seaside enclave of Malibu. The deal allows Sheen to continue his work on �Two and Half Men.�

Sheen was arrested on Christmas Day after Brooke Mueller, his third wife, told police he had pulled a knife on her and threatened to have her killed.

The actor was charged with felony menacing, misdemeanour third degree assault and misdemeanour criminal mischief.

In exchange for his guilty plea on the misdemeanour third degree assault, prosecutors dropped the charges of menacing and of criminal mischief.

Sheen had faced up to three years behind bars if he had been convicted on all charges.

The actor�s legal troubles have had little effect on his popularity. Audiences for �Two and a Half Men� have remained high and this year Sheen negotiated a deal with CBS that took his pay to a reported US$1.8 million (RM5.7 million) per episode.

Charlie Sheen Faces a Most Uncommon Jail in Aspen

If, as expected, Charlie Sheen serves jail time in the wealthy enclave of Aspen, Colorado, he will live where the floors are carpeted, the cells look like college dormitories and hot meals are brought in from a hospital.

No, this isn't Hollywood. There are no cells stacked one atop the other, no loud noise from raucous inmates, or hard time discipline sent down by a mean-spirited staff.

This is the Pitkin County Jail, where the inmates of Aspen are held.



"The punitive aspect is loss of your freedom and liberty, and that's as far as it goes," Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis told Reuters on Friday. "We want to release inmates in better shape than when they came in."

He said most inmates are in pretrial detention, and thus presumed innocent. They are incarcerated, he said, because they cannot make bond.

"Poor people stay in jail; rich men bond out," he said.

Sheen, an award-winning actor and star of hit comedy "Two and a Half Men" is hardly poor, but he is in trouble.

On Monday, he is widely expected to plead no contest to assaulting his wife in Aspen, where the Pitkin County government is based, and be sentenced to as much as 30 days in the jail. He landed there for a short stint when arrested in December on Christmas Day, before posting bond.

Braudis played a guiding role in the county's construction of the jail in 1984, which replaced a five-bed cage in the Pitkin County Courthouse, and he was determined to build a "humane facility" with direct supervision of inmates.

"Our staff is inside with them," Braudis said. "They talk to them, listen to them, eat with them. It reduces assaults, both inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff."

Aspen, of course, is the famous ski resort town known worldwide as a home to Hollywood celebrities, wealthy businessmen and women and powerful politicians.

On the county's website, the jail's mission calls for "a safe, secure" environment and services to "enhance physical and mental wellness and encourage self rehabilitation and successful re-integration to society for all inmates."

Prisoners spend most of their days and evenings in a common room, where they can read, watch television, play cards and socialize. They can make collect phone calls, use mail service, visit with relatives and friends and exercise regularly.

There is a fenced-in area in the jail's parking lot where inmates can spend time outdoors.

The jail's capacity is 24 people. This time of year the population averages around 15, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marie Munday. Twelve people staff the facility.

"Our staff is not hacks or screws, as they're called in other jails," Braudis said. "They're well-educated people who have been members of our community for some time. It is a community jail, where, if your son or daughter goes to jail, you're comfortable with it."

Breakfast is cold cereal or oatmeal heated in a microwave. For lunch and dinner, one of the staff drives two miles to Aspen Valley Hospital to pick up meals. Inmates and staff eat the same dietician-supervised meals as hospital patients do.

"The tabloids got upset when Charlie (Sheen) got prime rib on Christmas, but it's what the hospital served," Munday said.

Sheen returns for more Two and a Half Men

After a few months of uncertainty, Charlie Sheen has decided to continue with his top-rated CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, the actor announced late Monday.

"To put a fitting end on the 2� months of whirlwind speculation, I'm looking forward to returning to my CBS home on Monday nights," the 44-year-old actor said in a statement issued late Monday.



Sheen's new contract binds him to the CBS show for another two seasons, according to his spokesman, Stan Rosenfield. Other details of the contract were not revealed.

CBS recently renewed Two and a Half Men, which also stars Jon Cryer, through the 2011-2012 season, but Sheen's contract was up at the end of the current, seventh season.

Sheen took a break from the show, which halted production temporarily, in February when he checked into a rehabilitation facility for an undisclosed treatment.

Rumours also emerged that the actor had been feeling limited by the confines of a weekly TV show and was itching to return to films. He makes a cameo in the forthcoming film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a sequel to the 1987 classic Wall Street in which he starred.

Sheen's personal life has also been a whirlwind. He faces a trial in Colorado this July over an alleged domestic violence incident involving his wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen.