Penn charged with battery

February 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor- director Sean Penn was charged Friday with battery and vandalism charges stemming from an altercation with a photographer in Brentwood last fall.

Penn will be arraigned March 22 on the two misdemeanor charges, said Los Angeles city attorney’s spokesman Frank Mateljan.

Mateljan said Penn kicked a photographer during a dustup in October. The photographer’s camera also was damaged. The incident was captured on a video posted by celebrity Web site TMZ.com in which Penn is seen kicking at a photographer and repeatedly telling the photographer to “get out.”

If convicted, Penn could face up to 18 months in jail.

Penn is the latest actor charged in Los Angeles for altercations with the paparazzi. Charges against rapper Kanye West and actor Gerard Butler were recently dismissed after both men completed community service after scuffles with celebrity photographers.

West, who was charged after breaking a photographer’s flash at Los Angeles International Airport in September 2008, also paid for the broken equipment.

Penn has won two best-actor Oscars for roles in “Mystic River” and “Milk.”