Bam Margera testifies at hearing about attack outside his club

WEST CHESTER - One minute he was catching a smoke outside his West Chester nightspot, and the next he "fell to the road in a pool of blood."

That was the testimony of Bam Margera at the preliminary hearing for 59-year-old Elizabeth Ray, a West Chester neighbor of the Note, Margera's nightclub. She is accused of bashing the 30-year-old MTV and movie star in the head about 2 a.m. June 12.

District Judge Gwenn S. Knapp ordered Ray held for trial on all charges, including one that prosecutor Ann Marie Wheatcraft added Thursday: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Margera, who skateboarded to fame on MTV's Jackass, a venue for stupid human tricks, has made a fortune getting smacked in the noggin. But, he testified, he was blindsided by this blow.

He said before the alleged attack that he and Ray engaged in an obscenity-laced shouting match - "random nonsense" - while he was across the street and she was inside her home on South Matlack Street, a residence that shares a wall with the Note.

Margera, who said he had tangled with Ray before over bar complaints, testified that he told Ray if she wanted peace and quiet, she shouldn't live in a college town full of loud frat boys.

Under cross-examination by Assistant Public Defender Kathleen Boyer, Margera admitted calling Ray names - "everything but the N word. . . . I wouldn't do that." He said he thought the roughly four-minute argument had ended when Ray disappeared from her door.

He said he then crossed the street to join Tammy Palumbo, who was waiting for a ride home with Margera's "designated driver." He said he was hit from behind, "got dizzy, and fell" into the street.

He said he heard Ray say: "I'll hit him again, and I'll make sure you're dead next time."

Margera testified that he sustained a concussion and a laceration that required two staples. He said he received permission a day later to fly to Los Angeles for the filming of his Jackass 3-D movie, part of which required rewriting to excise his head wallops.

Still, Margera testified, he ended up in a Los Angeles hospital because he "kept fainting in the middle of filming."

Palumbo testified that she also thought the screaming match was over and that she was reaching down to answer her phone when Margera "tumbled into the street."

She said she saw Ray brandishing a long, cylindrical object with both hands - "I thought it was a bat at first," but it seemed longer and thinner. She said she heard Ray yell: "That's right [expletive]. . . . I'll hit you again."

The two witnesses differed on what Margera had been drinking. He said four beers and a vodka and cranberry, and Palumbo said "three or four glasses of red wine, same as me." They also disagreed on exactly when he crossed the street and whether he lost consciousness for a few moments.

After the hearing, Margera said he hoped Ray would be punished. He said it was "a bummer" that the attack curtailed his Hollywood antics - stunts that bear no resemblance to the alleged assault.

"I might get whacked with a yoga ball," he said. "A baseball bat to the head can kill you."