Michael Imperioli’s Son Arrested for Allegedly Spray Painting Swastika on College Campus
Former Sopranos star Michael Imperioli’s lookalike son is being accused of committing a very provocative crime.
Vadim Imperioli, 19, was arrested in the Nov. 20 spray painting of a swastika in a dorm at Purchase College in Harrison, N.Y., which is 22 miles north of Manhattan in Westchester county. He faces a charge of criminal mischief in the fourth degree and is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 17, according to the local newspaper The Journal News.
“He was arrested for the swastika incident,” Captain Doug Larkin of the New York State Police, which assisted the campus police in the case, confirmed the arrest to the paper. The criminial mischief charge could possibly be “upgraded to a felony,” according to the assistant district attorney.
An investigation into the swastika, which was put on a bulletin board, began on Nov. 21. A week later, campus police announced that they had solved the case, though they didn’t mention the actor’s son by name. (A second incident around that time, the scrawling of “Black Lives Don’t Matter,” is still being investigated.)
Vadim was in Harrison Town Court Tuesday on a separate matter when it was noted during proceedings that he had been arrested for the swastika case. He was accompanied by his grandparents to answer a petty larceny charge involving the unauthorized use of a car on Oct. 13. During proceedings, the assistant district attorney asked the judge to increase his bail because of the latest incident. It was also brought up that Vadim had served three years’ probation for vandalism in California.
A Facebook profile for Vadim, which has since been deactivated, noted that he graduated from Santa Barbara High School in California and was a freshman pursuing a cinema studies major at Purchase, which is known for its theater program. (Alums include Stanley Tucci, Wesley Snipes, Edie Falco, Parker Posey, Zoe Kravitz, and Melissa Leo.) However, his attorney told the judge in court, “I don’t believe he’s still going to that school,” without clarifying whether the teen left on his own accord or was expelled.
Vadim’s actor dad, 50, grew up in nearby Mount Vernon, N.Y. He got his big break in the Sopranos playing Christopher Moltisanti, Tony’s (one-time) protégé. After the show ended, Michael, who has a reputation for being a mellow guy and often wears Tibetan prayer beads, pursued lots of different TV roles (including on Californication, Life on Mars, Hawaii Five-0, Mad Dogs, and Blue Bloods) as well as film parts (most recently 2015’s The Wannabe).
In June, father and son appeared together on a teen-advice video podcast called Journals Out Loud. During it, one of his past quotes was read, “My family is my life and everything else comes second as far as what is important to me.” He joked, “I felt like that at one time. I did.”
Michael and his Russian-born wife, Victoria, are the parents of another son, David, 16. They also raised her daughter, Isabella, from a previous relationship.
