News Archive June 2011
From: NashvilleScene.com
Posted: June 23, 2011
Hey, soldiers of the KISS Army, are y'all psyched for Vinnie Vincent's court appearance tomorrow? Well, don't be, as the domestic abuse case against the former KISS guitarist and "Ankh Warrior" - aka Vincent Cusano - has been temporarily "retired."
Cusano was scheduled to appear in Rutherford County Criminal Court tomorrow to answer aggravated domestic assault charges stemming from a May 21, 2011 incident in which the Ankh Warrior allegedly smacked his wife Diane in the face before dragging her by her hair through a pile of broken glass and throwing her to the ground repeatedly at the couple's Smyrna home - where authorities subsequently found the entombed carcasses of four dogs. Animal cruelty charges were not pursued against the couple, effectively clearing them of any wrongdoing as far as that bizarre detail is concerned.
As for those domestic assault charges - well, it appears Cusano has struck a deal with the state, temporarily retiring the case for a year (or 11 months and 29 days, to be specific), eventually giving the guitarist an opportunity to "petition the Court to dismiss [the] case and expunge the pertinent records as provided by law," in exchange for undergoing a whopping eight hours of anger management therapy.
Prosecutors have the option of pursuing the case against Cusano if he fails to honor what is the traffic school equivalent, in hours, he'd have to endure to clear, like, two moving violations. And he has until a Dec. 5, 2011 court date to make that happen.
This according to a pre-trial agreement (posted below) obtained by the Scene, and filed (quietly) last Monday, June 13. Cusano has neither been tried nor convicted of any charges as of yet.
At press time, Cusano's attorney, Guy Dotson, Jr., could not be reached for comment on the rocker-turned-Rutherford-County-recluse's behalf. However, earlier this month Cusano reportedly posted a lengthy statement of self-defense, puppy love, plugs for his VINNIE VINCENT MODEL GUITAR, and rants against media folks like myself for "publishing unsubstantiated sensationalized reports that are then taken as "the truth," - in addition to being taken from police reports - on his YouTube page.
While the video has since been removed, you can see his comments transcribed here.
