Paul Teutul Sr. is a mustachioed bear of a man who builds motorcycles for the rich and famous. He is well-known round the world as the patriarch of the American Chopper, thanks to his long running reality–based show on the Discovery Channel. 

He's made $150,000 bikes for Jay Leno and Lance Armstrong. He appeared in January, along with some custom-made beauties – bikes, that is – on Letterman with celebrity bikers Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Last weekend, he opened up the new world headquarters of his custom motorcycle sculpting company, Orange County Choppers, in Newburgh, NY.

Along with his bike-building boys, Paul Jr. and Mikey, Paul Sr. – the five-year-old show now appears on Thursday nights on Discovery's sister station, TLC – has such a busy schedule that it's hard to keep track of where he'll be on any given day.

In early July, though, the elder Teutul (it's pronounced Tuttle) will be making a command performance in lower Manhattan at the Foley Square courtroom of U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin.

Teutul, who celebrates his 59 th birthday today, is not in any trouble. Quite the contrary. Like Curtis Sliwa, another New Yorker who sat in the same witness stand a few times, Teutul is an alleged victim of a violent gang of thugs who work for the mob – in this case, the supposedly sophisticated Genovese crime family. 

Sources say the robbery team – which included a crew member who owned an upstate New York gym where Teutul worked out – had expected to reap a $400,000 payday in the October 19, 2003 robbery. 

The plan went awry however. Neither Teutel nor his girlfriend were home. And even though they pistol-whipped an elderly friend of the couple who was house sitting, the gang “did not succeed in finding any money,” according to assistant U.S. attorney Elie Honig. 

“They had an inside tip that he had a significant amount of cash in his home from his business,” Honig said at a bail hearing for the alleged leader of the robbery team, John (Rocky) Melicharek, 37. “They missed it. They realized afterwards that they missed the cash,” which sources say was hidden in the attic. 

Rocky organized the Teutul robbery and “drove the car full of the break-in team to the site, and then waited for them outside in the car,” said Honig, adding that Melicharek knew that

Teutul had a successful Cable TV show and was a “well-known public figure” at the time. 

“That's why they targeted him,” said Honig. 

Melicharek (left) and three other crew members – Dominick (Shakes) Memoli, 42, Dardian (Danny) Celaj, 30, and Ened (Neddy) Gjelaj, 27 – are also charged with a successful home invasion in which two women and a five-year old child were beaten and terrorized before the robbers made their escape with several hundred thousand dollars in cash and jewelry. 

If convicted of the armed robbery counts, all five defendants face life imprisonment. 

Last month, Judge Scheindlin ruled that Melicharek, a reputed top aide to Prisco, and two other Genovese associates, Michael Iuni, 50, and Angelo Nicosia, 45, should be tried separately on extortion conspiracy charges that had been part of the original indictment. That case will follow the robbery trial, which is set for July 7.