New York- HBO debuts a reality series this month, about a New York bounty hunter and his family - but you won't see the star's juiciest stories on TV.
"Family Bonds," which airs for the first time on Sept. 19, chronicles the life of Tom Evangelista, a cocksure tough guy who runs the family business, All City Bail Bonds, in Queens.
But missing from the show will be the sensational details of Evangelista's own problems with the law.
Court records reveal that the bounty hunter was arrested in 2001 after cops in Centereach, L.I., busted a late-night Halloween sex-club party he allegedly organized.
The bash featured men and women reveling in a booze-driven orgy, according to the documents. The partygoers were dressed as nuns, monks, Playboy bunnies, altar boys and even the Pope, one source said.
"At a nearby bench seat, a man appeared to be receiving oral sex from a woman who was on the floor under the table," an undercover agent with the state liquor authority said in a deposition. "No other customer appeared to consider this unusual activity."
Evangelista, 46, of Medford, was accused of serving alcohol without a liquor license - a misdemeanor charge he is still fighting in court.
When contacted by the Daily News, the muscle-shirt-wearing bounty hunter insisted the case was no big deal. There was, indeed, a party inside the Purple Rose Social Club on Route 25, he said - but public sex was not on the agenda.
"I'm telling you. There was no sex club, though there is no law saying you can't have a sex club," Evangelista said in an interview. "It was a Halloween party. There was somebody dressed as the Energizer Bunny and someone was dressed as Pocahontas."
Records show Evangelista also had a brush with the law in 1998, when he was charged - and acquitted in 2000 - of impersonating a U.S. marshal while pursuing one of his targets.
The target blew up his boat in a Sayville, L.I., marina - committing suicide and injuring 11 Suffolk cops - after he was confronted by Evangelista, police said.
Officials at HBO played down the criminal cases involving the star of its newest program, which will air Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
"We're looking at a misdemeanor charge that he claims is unfounded," HBO spokeswoman Lana Iny said. "It really has nothing to do with the show."
HBO production crews spent the better part of a year trying to chronicle the lives of Evangelista and his family.
The result was a show filled with raunchy dialogue, boozing teens and frequent peeks at the depravity involved in the gritty business of chasing fugitives.
The show goes inside the Evangelistas' home for a look at their colorful family life. In one scene, the cameras follow Tom's wife, Flo, to the beauty salon, where she and her pals natter on about nails, fake boobs and achieving orgasms without any touching.
Tom and Flo Evangelista also are shown throwing their son Sal a keg party and letting him drink up for his 18th birthday.
At other points, she shares such tidbits as the fact that her husband wants sex five times a day - and can't go to sleep without it.
Much of the rest of the show dwells on Evangelista's unpredictable days on the job.
Here's how he explains his work of posting bonds for suspects, then chasing them down if they skip bail:
"If you come to me, I'll do everything I can for you. But if you f--- up, if you make me come and get you, I'm gonna come and get you.
"I would prefer to never chase a guy again, and just put on a suit every day, go to court and do my paperwork, but that's not the nature of the beast."
Regarding his own criminal cases - past and present - Evangelista said, "I have nothing to hide about that. Whatever it is, it is. It's not true."
