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Defense: MTV’s ‘Don Vito’ was ‘in character’ during groping

Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 23, 2007 at midnight

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MTV star Vincent Margera may have been obnoxious and vulgar during a public appearance at the Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood in last year, but he was merely playing the part of his "Don Vito" character, his defense attorney told a Jefferson County jury today.

Margera, 51, is charged with three counts of sexual assault on a child for groping a 14-year-old girl and two 12-year-old girls during an autograph signing event Aug. 18, 2006, at the skate park in the Mills Mall.

The girls said he grabbed their breasts or buttocks while they had their photos taken with him at the event.

"This man was out of control during this public event," said prosecutor Jim Stanley. "He was so intoxicated that he peed his pants while with these children."

Two female Lakewood police officers said he resisted arrest, claimed they had broken his arm and neck and repeatedly called them "psycho lesbian bitches" while alternately asking in the squad car if they were taking him to a strip club.

But defense attorney Pamela Mackey said that when Margera stepped out of his Jeep for the appearance at the skate park, he took on the persona of the outrageous and profane Don Vito, the character he played on MTV's show "Viva La Bam," which starred his nephew, Bam Margera.

A painter of cars until his rapid rise to fame with the teen set, Margera "quickly learned the crazier he was, the more the kids loved it," Mackey told the jury in her opening statement. "Fans came to see the crazy, outrageous, profane uncle. That's who they wanted their picture taken with. Fans expected to see Don Vito, not Vincent Margera. You may find the behavior vulgar and disgusting, but it was done to amuse, to entertain, to get a laugh."