Incident that led to Bam Margera’s probation violation described

The incident that apparently landed Brandon “Bam” Margera in trouble began Monday outside a family-owned restaurant and ice cream shop, Gordon's Cruise-In, in tiny Needmore, an unincorporated village in rural Fulton County.

According to a press release from the state police, police officer Benjamin Leberfinger was on routine patrol there at around 9 p.m. when he responded to a report that a white man was sitting in front of the store. But before he could arrive, the man had already gotten into a black four-door sedan and driven away.

Leberfinger was able to locate the suspect in the limousine and initiated a traffic stop. After an investigation, the driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and other misdemeanors, according to the press release. The press release stated that alcohol was “visible.”

Although Margera was not named in the press release, the circumstances are consistent with those in the formal notice of probation violation in Margera's Chester County case, which is why he was transported to the Chester County Jail to await his hearing before Judge Patrick Carmody on Monday.

According to the state's justice system's web portal, Margera had not been charged as of Friday. His attorneys, Adam Leasure, Michael T. van der Veen and William J. Brennan, said in a statement: “We are in the process of sorting this all out. Like every citizen of this country, Mr. Margera is presumed innocent.”

Warrant records show that county probation officer Bradford Griffith said Margera was charged with drunken driving and reckless driving by state police on Sept. 16. In drunken driving cases, the driver is sometimes served with a summons days after the stop and formal arraignment occurs later in district court. Griffith said a preliminary hearing is pending in Magistrate District Court in Needmore, not far from the ice cream shop where Margera was seen.

Griffith also stated that Margera had not adhered to treatment plans for his drug and alcohol addiction and that he continued to pose an “obvious danger” to himself and others.

He was taken into custody on Wednesday on the basis of an arrest warrant.

In June, Margera pleaded guilty to two counts of disturbing the peace for threatening behavior he displayed toward his brother at the Margera property in Pocopson in April 2023.

The guilty plea included a six-month suspended sentence that Margera was to serve while continuing his psychiatric treatment and submitting to random drug testing. It seemed as though he had revived his career in the entertainment industry, which had been in danger of being derailed by his drinking and drug use.

“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.”

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

“I was on the right track with alcohol and drugs and had to dig deep to get things under control,” he said. “Now I'm on the right track.”

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

Originally published: September 20, 2024 at 10:24 am