Jersey Shore Producers And MTV Sued For Racketeering Over Bar Fights

The New Jersey Superior Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit that claims that MTV and the producers of Jersey Shore are engaging in an ongoing criminal enterprise by staging deliberately provoked bar fights between cast members and patrons of the nightclubs that they attended while on camera.

The lawsuit claims Ronnie Magro, the beefiest of the "Jersey Shore" crew, went out of his way to pick fights during the show's taping. In one episode, an exultant Magro howls at the camera after knocking out Stephen Izzo Jr., who is named in the suit. Joshua Thomas, also part of the lawsuit, said Magro started a fight with him and his wife, Kristin Porrenod. After the fisticuffs aired, Thomas said he was fired from the Monmouth Beach police force, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Just in time for season two, which premiers in July.