Former Jackass star Bam Margera will spend six months on probation after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct Wednesday over an altercation at his home near Philadelphia.
Bam Margera, 44, had been charged with assaulting his brother Jess and making threats to other family members during what his brother called a “frightening and unpredictable” two-week visit home last year.
The plea ends a long legal case that spun out of his stay at the Chester County home known as Castle Bam. At a hearing last year, Bam told the judge he was getting drug and alcohol treatment.
Jess Margera, at the same court hearing, called his brother “a good dude when he’s not messed up,” but said he had exhibited troubling behaviour for two decades and, while home, had been awake for days.
Jess suffered a ruptured eardrum in the altercation, while his girlfriend called police when Bam kicked in her bedroom door, the brother testified.
Defence lawyer William J. Brennan said Bam pleaded guilty to two summary offences, and is now clean, sober and productive a year after the arrest.
“You can really say he won his case before today just by turning his life around,” Brennan said Wednesday.
Bam Margera has long struggled publicly with alcohol abuse and mental health issues.
The actor and former skateboarder has done several stints in rehab, and in 2018 was arrested for driving under the influence.
Last year in March, he was arrested on a domestic violence charge after it was alleged that he had kicked a woman. Three months later, TMZ reported that police had put him on psychiatric hold at a Los Angeles mental health facility for erratic speech and behaviour.