Court is in session for ‘Jersey Shore’ cast

By WAYNE PARRY

Associated Press

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J.

There’s a certain T-shirt hanging on the wall of The Shore Store, a boardwalk clothing shop where cast members of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” punch the clock at their day jobs for the show. It reads, “I Love Seaside Heights, New Jersey this time of year!”

With the hit series filming its sixth season here, it’s that time of year again in Seaside Heights. And as predictably as the waves crash on the shore, misbehaving cast members are rolling into municipal court with their lawyers and credit cards in tow.

So far this year, one cast member, Deena Cortese, was arrested for reportedly dancing in a roadway in Seaside Heights, slapping passing cars. And housemate Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is accused by a northern New Jersey man of assaulting him during a scuffle at the Bamboo Bar earlier this month.

Add to that a court hearing next week for a friend of Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino. John Manfre, known on the show as “The Unit,” who was charged with trying to bring drugs into the shore house, according to his lawyer, who is challenging the grounds for the arrest.

Raymond Raya, the attorney who represented Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi in her disorderly conduct arrest in 2010 for annoying beach-goers after having a few cocktails, said this kind of behavior is not exactly alien to Seaside Heights.

“I don’t think there’s anything happening at these clubs that’s any different than what was going on 20 years ago,” he said. “They’re just filming it now. It’s naturally unnatural.”

Cortese was arrested June 10 after police said she appeared to be drunk and dancing in the street.

That was the same weekend that a scuffle broke out at Bamboo Bar, a popular nightspot, in which a northern New Jersey man, Justin Viterito, claimed he was assaulted by Ortiz-Magro. Viterito’s lawyer, Matthew DiBrino, said his client was buying drinks for Ortiz-Magro and another man when a friend of his was pushed, prompting Viterito to defend his friend. The lawyer said a scuffle ensued during which Viterito was punched by Ortiz-Magro and another man.

Many viewers of the show who lined up on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights last week, hoping to catch a glimpse of cast members as they worked in the T-shirt shop, said the worse the cast members behave, the more entertaining the show is.

“That’s the main reason people watch it,” said Marcus Snedeker, 31, of Jackson Township. “The episode where Ronnie knocked the dude out and he was lying in the street, that was one of the best episodes.”

He was referring to an episode from the show’s first season in which another man was shown taunting Ortiz-Magro and other cast members as they walked home, only to be laid out by a single punch from Ortiz-Magro, who boasted, “That’s one shot! That’s one shot, kid!”

Ortiz-Magro was charged with aggravated assault but entered a pretrial intervention program that let him avoid prosecution.