Former Anti-Flag frontman Justin Sane – actual identify Justin Geever – is being sued for sexual assault by a lady named Kristina Sarhadi. In response to Rolling Stone, the lawsuit was filed on November 22 in opposition to Sane and Anti-Flag‘s distribution firm Hardwork Distribution, which is owned by Anti-Flag members Pat Thetic (Patrick Bollinger), Chris Head, and Chris No. 2 (Chris Barker).
Sarhadi‘s lawsuit was filed below New York’s Grownup Survivors Act, which was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022 and creates a one-year window for survivors of sexual assault that occurred after they had been over 18 years previous to sue their abusers no matter when the abuse occurred.
“Justin Geever used his platform as a celebrated, self-proclaimed ‘punk rock star’ to groom and lure susceptible ladies into feeling secure in his presence,” Sarhadi says in a press release. “Whereas he sang about defending girls and standing as much as abusers, it seems he was hiding an dependancy to energy and management, harming numerous girls who’ve been unable to talk up prior to now. As we speak I hope to encourage his survivors, and survivors of different predators within the music trade, to really feel hope once more.”
Sarhadi initially got here ahead with allegations in opposition to Geever in July 2023 in an episode of the Sufficient podcast. Sarhadi mentioned Geever sexually assaulted her in October 2010 when she was 22 years previous, saying partly: “It was probably the most terrifying factor I’ve ever skilled. I can not stress how violent he was and the way a lot I totally believed I used to be going to die, that he was going to kill me.”
Sarhadi is hardly the primary lady to talk up in opposition to Geever, as 12 separate women have voiced similar accusations – although some say they had been as younger as 15 years previous after they had been assaulted. Anti-Flag launched a statement around that same time (after breaking up in July), saying partly: “To Justin, we imagine you might be very sick and in want of great skilled assist. We wish to have compassion and think about restorative justice, however fuck you for hurting so many individuals, not simply those who’ve bravely come ahead, however anybody nonetheless carrying their ache internally.”
The lawsuit consists of Hardwork Distribution as Sarhadi claims the band “ought to have identified” about Geever‘s misdeeds and that they “had an obligation of cheap care to enact insurance policies and procedures to guard followers.”
“The choice to file a lawsuit takes nice braveness and is usually not doable for therefore many survivors of sexual assault,” says Sarhadi‘s lawyer, Karen Barth Menzies. “Accountability is just attainable when survivors rise up for themselves and one another.”
“I predict that in 5 years the music trade can be considered the identical manner because the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts — a robust power that additionally enabled and shielded sexual predators for many years,” mentioned Sarhadi‘s different lawyer, Dr. Ann Olivarius. “‘Medicine, intercourse & rock ‘n roll’ was a actuality that meant a variety of younger girls obtained abused. The bands had handlers who made all of it occur and executives who coated all of it up as a result of a lot cash relied on it.”
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