How Many Times Has The Cast Of Jackass Been Arrested?

One of the most controversial shows in MTV's history, "Jackass" prided itself on jaw-dropping stunts and entertainment through self-harm. Given the extreme nature of their stunts, it should come as no surprise that the cast of "Jackass" have had many run-ins with the law. While some of the arrests were common enough substance charges, a few were so bizarre that they seem like they almost could have been outtakes from the show itself. Some cast members, such as Brandon Novak and Steve-O, have come back from their pasts clean and sober. Others, such as Ryan Dunn, unfortunately didn't live long enough to escape their demons.

While not every cast member has had legal troubles, several have, including such recent additions like Sean "Poopies" McInerney and Zach Holmes. From DUIs to bringing a grenade to the airport, here are the stories behind every time each cast member of "Jackass" has been arrested.

Right from the beginning, "Jackass" stars had legal troubles, and it extended to those working behind the scenes as well. During filming of the pilot episode, Johnny Knoxville performed in a skit where he played an escaped convict at a True Value store in West Hollywood. Knoxville, in an interview with Wired, says that he was arrested for trespassing. While joking that he was happy because someone else got arrested as well, at the time the arrest was no joke. Production coordinator Veena Mehta was also arrested and sent to jail, and MTV needed to hire a criminal lawyer for the case. While Mehta was able to escape the charges, the show was banned from West Hollywood for years afterwards.

His second arrest was a much more bizarre affair. In 2009, Knoxville was arrested at LAX when trying to board his American Airlines flight to Miami when security noticed a grenade in his carry-on bag (via Los Angeles Daily News). The Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was called to the scene to examine the grenade, and found that it did not have a pin or explosive material. According to Knoxville, the grenade was a prop from a photo shoot he was attending and that he forgot that he had it in his bag. While Knoxville was released, the police did want to charge him with the misdemeanor charge of "possession of a prohibited item within the sterile area of an airport."

One of the founding members of "Jackass" and unfortunately one no longer with us, Ryan Dunn started his career doing stunts with Bam Margera for his "CKY" crew. Aside from his on-camera stunts, Dunn also brought his predilection for danger off the screen as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dunn had 23 driving citations for speeding, careless driving, and driving with a suspended license. This led to a DUI arrest in 2005.

During the filming of "Jackass Number Two" in 2006, Dunn got injured during a stunt and developed a blot clot in his shoulder (per E! Online). This, along with treatment for Lyme disease, led him to fall into a depression that kept him isolated from his friends for two years. He rejoined the "Jackass" family to shoot "Jackass 3D" in 2010. The following year, as reported by The Wrap, Dunn and "Jackass Number Two" production assistant Zachary Hartwell went out drinking and Dunn posted a photo of the two of them at a West Chester bar online. Hours later, a drunken Dunn jumped a guard rail in his Porche and it burst into flames, killing both him and Hartwell. Toxicology reports showed that Dunn's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit at the time of his death. The tragedy also led to Bam Margera's downward spiral into alcoholism, as Margera told Us Weekly.

Unlike other "Jackass" cast members who left of their own accord, Bam Margera's legal and substance abuse problems led to him being fired from their most recent film, "Jackass Forever" (per NBC News). While he was able to avoid arrest for some of his exploits, he has been arrested for at least three, the first of which was in 2013. According to TMZ, in 2012 Margera rented a Toyota Landcruiser when he was in Iceland and proceeded to kick the door, scratch the car, hit the back, and spill oil paints all over the interior. Instead of paying for the damages at the time he instead fled the country, and was only arrested when he decided to go back to Iceland the following year. He was immediately arrested when he arrived at the Keflavik Airport and eventually paid for the damages.

After the death of fellow "Jackass" star Ryan Dunn, Margera began binge drinking. On the show "Family Therapy With Dr. Jenn," he admitted that after Dunn's death, "that's when it wasn't even drinking for the fun or for the social part of it. It was just drinking because [of] total depression, kinda" (via Us Weekly). In 2018 Margera was arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles, and the following year he was arrested for trespassing shortly after leaving rehab (per People). During the second incident he was placed under citizen's arrest by a hotel staffer when he sat on the floor in the middle of the lobby and refused to leave.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Vincent "Don Vito" Margera, uncle of "Jackass" star Bam Margera, never actually appeared on screen in the "Jackass" franchise itself, despite being famous as a staple of Bam's own show, "Viva La Bam." He was slated to appear in "Jackass Number Two," but his scenes were cut after he was arrested for groping two underage girls (via Deadline). 

In 2006, Don Vito was arrested in Colorado while on a trip to film promotional material. The incident happened during an autograph signing, where he groped two underaged girls, one 12 years old and the other 14. His defense was that he was acting "in character" as Don Vito and that fans expected him to behave outrageously (per MTV News). The defense didn't work, and he was convicted in 2007 on two counts of sexual assault on a child. Part of his sentence was that he had to register as a sex offender and spend 10 years on probation, and was no longer allowed to perform as Don Vito for a decade.

Don Vito died in 2015 of liver and kidney failure, telling his sister-in-law April Margera that he wanted to thank all of his fans (via CNN).

Perhaps no member of the "Jackass" crew has had as many legal issues as Brandon Novak. Though he shot to fame in his teens, even being sponsored by Gatorade when he was 14 (per Boca Magazine), his substance abuse problems started early and caused him to leave his skateboarding team when he was 17. In his autobiography "Dreamseller," he included a photocopy of his arrest record from the state of Maryland, showing 19 arrests from between 1996 and 2008 for charges such as burglary, possession, and loitering. He notes that "the rest have been lost in the paperwork shuffle." More police records were published in his follow-up book, "The Streets of Baltimore."

Novak was arrested in 2014 for an outstanding warrant, after having the police called on him for disorderly conduct in a restaurant. Per WUSA9, Novak was intoxicated and bothering other customers with a friend. Another arrest ended with Novak appearing on the show World's Dumbest Criminals. After taking 15 Xanax pills, Novak threw a cinder block through a gas station window and stole cigarettes, alcohol, cash, and Mentos. He left and stood at a bus station, but returned to the scene of the crime, both to steal more stuff and to warm up due to how cold it was outside. While inside, Novak passed out and was promptly arrested. Thankfully, Boca Magazine reports that Novak is now sober and works for the Banyan Treatment Center as a community outreach coordinator.

Steve-O's history of arrests is particularly on-brand for what you might expect from a "Jackass" star. In 2002, he was arrested in Louisiana for obscenity due to a nightclub act in which he stapled his scrotum to his inner thigh (per MTV News). In 2003 he was arrested again, this time for urinating in public at Lollapalooza. That same year he was arrested yet again, this time for swallowing a condom full of drugs while he was in Sweden. Not content to swallow just one drug, Steve-O "loaded a bunch of marijuana, a chunk of hash, and a big rolling paper into a condom" and swallowed it while being filmed. Steve-O talked about this stunt while the drugs were still in his body, and the police raided his apartment and located a "foreign object" in his body though an X-ray.

2003 was such a busy period for Steve-O that it took years for all his illegal activities from that period to catch up with him. In 2011, he was arrested for an outstanding warrant due to allegedly hitting an audience member with a weapon onstage during a comedy performance at the University of Calgary in 2003 (per CBC). His last arrest came in 2015, and this time there was a cause behind it (per NBC Los Angeles). Inspired by the documentary "Blackfish" about the treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld, Steve-O climbed a crane in Los Angeles and inflated a huge killer whale balloon, all while lighting several fireworks.

Preston Lacy, who typically teams up with Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, has had a couple of run ins with the law, one of which was an incident with fellow castmate Steve-O. In 2003, a stage show at the University of Calgary that ended in a brawl led to three men being charged for assault (per CTV). One was Steve-O, and the other was Lacy, who was charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. The warrant for Lacy's arrest is currently outstanding.

In 2011, the same year that Steve-O was arrested for the Calgary incident, Lacy was arrested in Oklahoma for possession of marijuana and rolling papers (via TMZ). Lacy was charged with two misdemeanors, but no further details of the arrest are currently available. Due to his appearances in the "Jackass" films that came after his arrest, he apparently has avoided any major repercussions for these incidents.

Of all the cast members of "Jackass," the one that we have seen the most of is Chris Pontius. In nearly every one of the "Jackass" films audiences have seen Pontius completely exposed, with "Jackass Forever" even using his painted private parts as a giant monster in the opening scene. It should come as no surprise, then, that in 2003 Pontius was arrested for indecent exposure in South Beach, Florida (via People). He was found sleeping naked on the hood of a car outside of a condo. Police were called, and after being awoken he was belligerent and threatened the police, which led to him being pepper-sprayed.

"I had to be sprayed with some red stuff and, God, it hurt," Pontius said (via Hollywood.com). "They didn't even take me to jail –- they took me to the mental hospital like Murdock on 'The A-Team.'" Though no other arrests show up online, Pontius admits that he has had multiple run-ins with the law. In the same article, Johnny Knoxville quotes him as saying, "Every time they arrest me, they take me to the psych ward."

Of all the new "Jackass" members, the most memorable may be Sean "Poopies" McInerney. Part of the generation that grew up with "Jackass," his sole arrest came in his teen years when he tried to emulate the show (something that every single episode airs a disclaimer telling fans not to do). While in junior high, McInerney was watching an episode of the show with some of his friends when he remembered that they had a gorilla mask and gloves. After telling them that he had to use the bathroom, his friend told him to put the mask and gloves on and do it in "the busiest intersection in Carlsbad" (per Stab Magazine).

While the intersection was empty at the time, it wasn't for long. Shortly after he began defecating, four police cars came to the scene. He was arrested, and the following day word of what happened spread around his school. Thus was born his nickname "Poopies," from his friends continuously teasing him about the incident. Rather than shy away from it McInerney embraced the nickname, and now this is how he's known to his castmates and the rest of the world.

Before joining the "Jackass" crew, Zach Holmes was uploading his dangerous stunts to YouTube and gaining a cult following. These videos got the attention of Bam Margera and led to the creation of the MTV's show "Too Stupid to Die." Furthering the "Jackass" connection, the series' cinematographer was none other than "Jackass" production assistant Chris Raab. In shorts, Holmes becoming part of the new "Jackass" cast seemed preordained.

Though Sean "Poopies" McInerney's arrest led to his "Jackass" nickname, Holmes' two arrests led to him entering stunts as a career. In an interview with High Times, Holmes states that his two arrests were due to marijuana, which is still illegal in his home state of Indiana. His first arrest was for possession, which led to him spending a month in jail. His second arrest happened after working a shift at Walmart. Though he hadn't smoked weed in two weeks, his friend was high, and when the police pulled him over they performed a blood test on him. Holmes still had marijuana in his system so he was sent to jail for the second time. It was during this time that Holmes decided to concentrate on his videos rather than working a day job, and five months after he got out of jail he got a production deal based on his viral videos.

Though an unofficial cast member, Compston "Darkshark" Wilson is definitely one of the most memorable characters in "Jackass Forever." Father of new cast member and hip hop performer Jasper Dolphin, Wilson has been open about his history with the law. On his Instagram account he even shared a photo from 2007, when he was released from prison.

Because he has only recently gained fame, details on his arrests are scarce, but there is a 2002 incident that took place in Los Angeles involving Wilson (via AnyLaw). In a trial by jury he was found guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of ammunition, and carrying a loaded weapon. The first count shows that Wilson was already a felon at the time. Because he was a second strike defendant, Wilson was required to serve a term of five years and four months. Given the date of his conviction, the photo that he shared on Instagram of his prison release may be related to this particular sentence.