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As lawyers for Ryan and Griffin O'Neal continue to argue both sides of their "You got your pregnant girlfriends's eye in the way of your swinging fireplace poker!"/"No, YOU got your fist in the way of my pregnant girlfriend's face!" debate, comes a new wrinkle to this Malibu tragedy, involving yet another troubled member of Ryan's brood. According to TMZ.com, Ryan had returned from ex-wife Farrah Fawcett's birthday party to find his other son (with Fawcett), Redmond, tethered to the staircase by way of handcuffs around his ankles:

We're told Griffin had chained his brother to the banister earlier in the evening, after walking in on him and finding that he was unresponsive. We're told Griffin believed his brother had overdosed and tethered him to prevent him from leaving and buying drugs. [...]

We're told when Ryan arrived home at 11, he tripped over the chain tied to Redmond and became enraged as Griffin laughed it off.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, they believe it was Ryan — not Griffin — who initially began swinging the fireplace poker. And these sources believe it was Ryan who struck Griffin's girlfriend before Griffin wrestled the poker away from his dad. [...]

We're told Ryan screamed "Get the f**k out of my house you asshole." Griffin and his girlfriend walked out, and we're told, for some reason, came back. It was then that Ryan fired a shot.

We had faith that some time was all that was needed to get to the bottom of this interfamilial misunderstanding, and now that we realize it was merely a case of "father returns to find allegedly OD'd son leashed like dog to banister, becomes enraged at his imprisoning sibling tormentor, swings fireplace poker until ensuing skirmish results in punching pregnant girl in face, then rushes upstairs to retrieve weapon that he will eventually fire at same banister to whom other son was shackled to just moments before," we're feeling more hopeful than ever that all the O'Neal men need to recover from this regrettable chapter is just a boys' weekend away—preferably at a firearm-free dude ranch or spa.