LAS VEGAS – Less than six weeks after being released from jail on a drunken driving charge, Motley Crue singer Vince Neil is facing two new misdemeanor charges in a Las Vegas casino showroom confrontation with an ex-girlfriend.
Neil, 50, is accused of poking his finger into the chest of Alicia Jacobs in a casino comedy club late March 24, and of cursing and pointing or poking at Jacobs and her friends, John Katsilometes and Patricia McCrone.
Neil's lawyer, David Chesnoff, said Neil intends to plead not guilty and fight the battery domestic violence and disorderly conduct charges. He's due May 2 in Las Vegas Justice Court.
"There are two sides to every story, especially when there are issues surrounding relationships," Chesnoff said. "We are looking forward to a trial on the matter."
Neil could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine on each charge.
Jacobs, 39, a Las Vegas entertainment television reporter, showed police a bruise that she said came from the finger-poke.
She said Tuesday she worries about being in the same room with Neil, with whom she told police she had a seven-month relationship that ended in early March.
"His drinking frightens me," Jacobs told The Associated Press. "Complete strangers in the theater saw exactly what happened."
Katsilometes, 45, an entertainment columnist for the Las Vegas Sun, published an account of the confrontation the next day. He branded Neil's brief entrance into the Hilton Las Vegas hotel's Shimmer Cabaret, the encounter, and Neil's swift exit "drive-by belligerence."
Katsilometes said Neil cursed at him, Jacobs and McCrone. "He was obviously intent on venting in a swift, profane, two-syllable outburst," Katsilometes wrote. "I didn't believe he was out to cause bodily injury to me."
He declined additional comment Tuesday, citing the criminal case. McCone is publicist for her brother-in-law, the iconic Las Vegas crooner Wayne Newton. She didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Neil was freed from Clark County jail Feb. 25 after serving 10 days for driving drunk last June near the Las Vegas Strip.
Neil also was fined $585 and ordered to serve 15 days on house arrest as part of a plea deal that avoided trial in the case. He didn't contest police accounts that he was driving drunk when he was stopped in his black Lamborghini late last June after leaving the Las Vegas Hilton.
Neil is the front man for a four-member heavy metal band known for bad behavior, hard partying, famous girlfriends and hard-driving hits like "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood." He also owns tattoo shops and two bars in Las Vegas. One is at the Hilton.
The singer denied in an interview with AP just before his arrest last June that he used drugs or abused alcohol.
"There's just a point in your life where you kind of stop. That's what happened with me," Neil said in an interview about a tell-all book. "There's other things in life than just drugs and alcohol."
Neil had also pleaded guilty to drunken driving before, in a 1984 crash in California that killed his passenger, Nicholas Dingley, a 24-year-old drummer with the group Hanoi Rocks.
Neil, then 25, wasn't injured. His conviction on manslaughter and drunken driving charges got him 20 days in jail, and he agreed to pay $2.5 million in restitution to victims.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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