Bam Margera pleads guilty to lesser charges for April 2023 incident at a Chester County home

Brandon “Bam” Margera at his preliminary hearing in July 2023.

WEST CHESTER – After a series of back-and-forth discussions between attorneys in the criminal case against reality TV star and local skateboarding hero Brandon “Bam” Margera, the charges against him were settled Wednesday with a guilty plea to minor misdemeanors.

Margera, who sat in the courtroom with his wife and others waiting while two prosecutors spoke with his three lawyers and worked out the details, pleaded guilty to two counts related to threatening behavior he displayed toward his older brother at the Margeras’ Pocopson property in April 2023.

The plea includes six months of court-supervised probation – which Margera must serve while continuing psychiatric treatment and submitting to random drug testing – and is another step toward reviving his entertainment career, which had been in danger of being derailed by his alcohol and drug use.

He was fired from production on the 2021 film “Jackass Forever,” which would have been a return to the stunt-heavy action films that made him and fellow cast members Ryan Dunn, Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville famous on the MTV reality show “Jackass.” The production company said he had reneged on a health agreement he signed for the role in the film.

Members of Margera’s family – including his mother, April Margera, his father, Phil Margera, and his wife, Dannii Marie – sat in the audience in Chester County Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom as Margera answered questions about his decision to plead guilty in the case and his admission that he broke the law.

“I just want to say thank you for this whole situation,” he told Carmody in brief comments after pleading guilty. “It’s helped me get my life in order. It’s a blessing in disguise.”

Carmody said the way the case was resolved was positive for Margera and his family. He said that in the months he spent presiding over the case, it became clear to him that the family simply wanted Margera to get away from the drugs and alcohol that were ruining his life.

“There was mourning in your family,” the judge told Margera, who was wearing his trademark black clothes, whose face, hands and neck were heavily tattooed and whose voice was scratchy. “But your friends and family are the most important thing in life. The rest is just a facade.”

Phil Margera thanked the judge for his help in settling the case.

Speaking to a MediaNews Group reporter in the hallway outside Carmody’s sixth-floor courtroom at the Chester County Justice Center, Margera and Marie reiterated that the arrest and its subsequent aftermath ultimately had a positive impact on his life.

“I was on the path of alcohol and drugs and had to dig deep into the matter to turn things around,” he said. “Now I’m on the right path.”

His wife, whom he met last year and married in May, agreed.

“He’s doing great,” she said. She said she doesn’t know what resolution he came to with his brother, but she has tried to be kind to his family. “I always pray that the family will work out their issues.”

Two of his lawyers, Michael van der Veen and William Brennan, both of Philadelphia, said they were satisfied with the resolution, although they had previously suggested that Carmody dismiss the lawsuit because of the progress Margera had made.

“This is a great solution,” said van der Veen. “It’s like a noise protection measure.”

“That’s an inflated traffic ticket,” Brennan repeated.

“He really turned his life around,” said van der Veen.

The day began at about 9:30 a.m. when attorney van der Veen asked to speak with Carmody in his conference room as the parties convened to begin a non-jury trial on the charges against Margera. Van der Veen and Brennan were accompanied by their co-counsel Adam Leasure, while Assistant District Attorney Peter Johnsen, who had just taken over the case this week, was accompanied by First Assistant District Attorney Erin O’Brien.

At first it seemed the matter would be postponed until later in July, with Carmody suggesting several possible dates. But as the parties sat down and regrouped, it seemed clear that a possible confession was on the cards.

The parties remained out of the courtroom for a good 30 minutes as they tried to reach an acceptable resolution. What crimes would Margera plead guilty to? What would be the terms of his punishment? Would his alleged victims – his brother and father – agree to the agreement? O’Brien, asked about the details of the talks, declined to comment.

Finally, around 11:15 a.m., all parties reconvened in Carmody’s courtroom, and Margera stood at the podium before Carmody and made his closing argument.

“Do you understand what you are doing?” asked the judge. “Yes.”

“Do you have any drugs or alcohol in your system today?” he asked. “No,” Margera replied.

The charge is the lowest level of felony in Pennsylvania. Margera was charged with simple assault and terroristic threatening, both misdemeanors that could result in prison time if convicted.

At a preliminary hearing last July, his older brother Jesse Margera testified about the “frightening and erratic” behavior Bam displayed on the morning of April 23, 2023, during a visit to his former home in Pocopson, known as “Castle Bam.”

The visit ended with the younger Margera threatening to “put a bullet in the head” of his mother and father, threatening Jesse Margera’s girlfriend, and punching his brother in the face more than a dozen times.

“He threatened everyone,” Jesse Margera said from the witness stand under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Zachary Yurick. “The whole house. My girlfriend looked like she had just come back from Afghanistan and had post-traumatic stress disorder.”

According to an arrest affidavit attached to State Trooper John Wendling’s criminal complaint, when he arrived, he spoke with Phillip Margera, Margera’s father, and Jesse Margera, who told him that Bam had fled into the woods behind the house and that several police officers were already searching for him.

Jesse Margera said he was awakened around 8 a.m. that day by his brother banging and kicking on his locked bedroom door. When he opened the door, he found a note that said, “If you ever…think about calling the police, I will hurt you,” and that the note was signed, “Bam.”

When Jesse Margera went into the kitchen of the house later that morning, he saw Bam urinating in the kitchen sink. Bam then became aggressive and began hitting his brother in the face and head. He said, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to put a bullet in your head,” the affidavit states. He also threatened other people in the house.

He said Bam flew into a rage when he saw a message on his cellphone from friends commenting on Bam’s bizarre behavior in the days before. Jesse Margera said his brother made up a language only he knew and seemed to talk to people who weren’t present. He said his brother apparently hadn’t slept in days and smashed a guitar he’d been given as a gift by rock musician Billy Idol. After hitting his brother, Margera ran out of the house into the woods and disappeared for several days before turning himself in to state police.

Van der Veen had argued at the time that the threats Margera had made against his brother should not be taken seriously and that the blows he had given him had no consequences.

“This is a disagreement between two brothers over coffee on a Sunday morning,” said van der Veen as he tried to get the charges against his client dropped. “This is a broken family. They are paid to behave like this. This case does not belong in this court.”

You can contact editor Michael P. Rellahan at 610-696-1544.