“Dynasty” beauty Catherine Oxenberg got into a wild fight with husband Casper Van Dien that ended when police rushed to their home and arrested Van Dien for spousal abuse.
The violent free-for-all — during which Catherine claims Van Dien pounded her head against a wall and tried to choke her — came not long after Catherine, 41, found out Van Dien, 33, had called his ex-wife Carrie Mitchum repeatedly for phone sex, sources say.
“Casper is a lying, cheating dog,” said a close friend of the couple. “Catherine threw him out once before and he begged her to take him back. She did — and now this.”
Tension in the Van Dien home had been building for weeks before the violent blowup on the evening of October 9, The ENQUIRER has learned.
“While he was on location last May, Casper had turned to Carrie for phone sex,” an inside source said. “He was supposedly still undergoing therapy for his sex addiction and Catherine was furious when she found out.
“Casper had admitted he cheated on her before their baby Maya was born last year. She threw him out then, but took him back on condition he get treatment.”
Things got even worse about two months ago when Casper brought his and Carrie’s kids, Bo, 9, and Grace, 6, to live with him in the home he shares with Catherine, their 1-year-old daughter Maya and Catherine’s 11-year-old daughter India.
The simmering resentments boiled over on October 9 when Bo pinched 1-year-old Maya’s fingers in a door and Catherine became convinced the boy had done it on purpose.
“Catherine threatened to get a divorce and take Maya away to protect her from Bo,” said a source familiar with the incident. “Casper got mad and grabbed the baby from Catherine and started to walk away. Then Catherine pounded Casper on the back with her fists.
“Catherine says Casper turned around and grabbed her by the throat with one hand while holding Maya in his other arm. She says he forced her against the wall and she hit her head — and then he started choking her. She managed to punch him in the face and he fell down backwards, still holding Maya.”
Catherine called the cops and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Casper for spousal battery after Catherine complained of head pain.
Shockingly, it wasn’t the first domestic abuse arrest for Van Dien who starred in the hit movie “Starship Troopers” and the TV series “Titans.” Court records obtained by The ENQUIRER reveal that on March 26, 1993, a Santa Monica Municipal Court jury found Van Dien guilty of a drunken assault on Carrie.
“The evidence at trial showed that the defendant (Van Dien) dragged his pregnant wife off the bed so she fell onto the floor on her buttocks, ripped off her shirt and brassiere and, after she fell on her stomach, picked her up by the back of her pants and dropped her on the floor three more times,” court papers say.
Van Dien was sentenced to counseling and two years probation, the couple patched up their differences and had a second child in 1996. But according to a source close to Carrie, Van Dien’s womanizing caused their marriage to break up in 1997.
When Van Dien called Carrie for phone sex last May, she went along with it because she was afraid Van Dien would try to take custody of their kids if she refused, Carrie’s pal said.
The close friend of Catherine and Van Dien says it looks like their marriage is melting down:
“Catherine’s still nuts about Casper, but I think this incident showed her that having no father for her kids may be better than having a guy she has to call the cops on.”
