WEST CHESTER — Celebrated TV provocateur Brandon “Bam” Margera will undergo a substance abuse evaluation Tuesday that is expected to chart the immediate future of his ongoing legal entanglements.
“Everybody in the system from the defense team to the prosecution to the probation office and the judge are interested in seeing Bam get what he needs, which is not punishment, but treatment,” said defense attorney Bill Brennan outside the Chester County Justice Center Monday morning. “…This is a good guy who’s got a medical issue and he’s dealing with it.”
The former star of shows like “Jackass” and “Viva La Bam,” who turns 45 on Saturday, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and reckless driving Sept. 16 in McConnellsburg, Fulton County. Common Pleas Judge Patrick Carmody indicated Monday that Margera allegedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.14%.
That arrest constituted a violation of the probation agreement Margera entered into in June, when he pleaded guilty to two summary counts of disorderly conduct related to threatening behavior he displayed towards his brother at the Margera compound in Pocopson in April 2023.
The plea included a sentence of six months of court supervised probation, which Margera was to have served out while he continued his mental health treatment and was subject to random drug screening.
Probation Officer Brad Griffith reportedly indicated following the DUI arrest that Margera had failed to comply with drug and alcohol treatment plans set up for him, and that he remains an “overt danger” to himself or others, though Brennan said Monday that his client had passed every drug and alcohol test he had been given and described last week’s arrest as “a little setback.”
“You’ve got to take the positive out of any negative,” said co-counsel Michael T. van der Veen. “For Bam, he’s taken a lot of good steps forward. There’s one step back and we’re just going to keep making sure he goes forward.”
Margera appeared Monday in restraints wearing green prison pants and a white undershirt. His new wife, Dannii Marie, whispered encouragement to him from the gallery, telling him “stay strong” and “it will be OK.”
Margera told the judge Monday that Marie has been his “sober rock,” but this was the first time he had been on a solo road trip and that he slipped during his third day alone. Marie declined to comment following the hearing.
Margera told Carmody in June that he viewed the plea and probation as a net positive after hitting rock bottom because it allowed him the grace to abstain from drugs and alcohol while turning his life around.
Carmody noted he has overseen alternative substance abuse courts so he understands addiction, but that his attitude toward is different when a defendant decides to get behind the wheel of an automobile while intoxicated.
“You have not hit rock bottom,” he told Margera Monday. “Rock bottom is crashing your car and killing somebody. I don’t want you to hit rock bottom.”
The comment was particularly poignant in Margera’s case, as fellow Jackass star Ryan Dunn died in a drunk driving crash in June 2011 at the age of 34. Toxicology reports found he had a BAC of 0.196%. Shortly after the crash, Margera described Dunn as his “best friend.”
Carmody made it clear that he would not release Margera, who has been in custody since Wednesday, until he has a recommendation in front of him from Tuesday’s expected evaluation.
The case was essentially continued to Wednesday, but the judge indicated it may not be necessary for Margera to return to court if Assistant District Attorney Pete Johnson, defense attorneys and Griffith can come to a consensus following that evaluation, which may simply recommend inpatient treatment that the judge could approve through an order and that Margera could begin immediately.
“It helps Bam get the needed treatment that he probably will be recommended to get,” Brennan said of the collegial dispositions of those involved in the case. “It’s not like Frankenstein where they come to the house with the torches and the pickaxes. Nobody’s here with ill intent. Everybody wants Bam to get help.”
Daily Local News Reporter Michael Rellahan contributed to this report.
