Anti-Flag’s Justin Sane Sued for Sexual Assault

Previous fan Kristina Sarhadi, who stepped forward versus the hard rock vocalist in July, is likewise taking legal action against the band, declaring they “had a responsibility of sensible care to enact policies and treatments to safeguard fans”

A lady is taking legal action against Anti-Flag‘s Justin Sane for sexual attack, 4 months after the punk-rock group dissolved in the wake of numerous ladies stepping forward to implicate the frontman of predatory habits, sexual attack and statutory rape, according to a claim acquired by Wanderer

Kristina Sarhadi, a New York holistic therapist and health coach, submitted the suit versus Sane, whose legal name is Justin Geever, on Wednesday in New York. She is likewise taking legal action against the band’s circulation business– which bandmates Patrick Bollinger, a.k.a. Pat Thetic, Chris Head, and Chris Barker (aka Chris No. 2) are signed up members– for an undefined quantity.

“Justin Geever utilized his platform as a renowned, self-proclaimed ‘hard rock star’ to groom and lure susceptible women into sensation safe in his existence,” Sarhadi states in a declaration. “While he sang about securing ladies and withstanding abusers, it appears he was concealing a dependency to power and control, damaging numerous females who have actually been not able to speak out previously now. Today I wish to motivate his survivors, and survivors of other predators in the music market, to feel hope once again.”

An agent for the band did not right away respond to an ask for remark. Preliminary efforts to reach Geever for remark were not successful.

Sarhadi stepped forward about her experience with Geever on the Enough podcast in July, detailing a traumatic October 2010 encounter with an unnamed activist punk vocalist who apparently sexually attacked her when she was 22. (Although Sarhadi did not call Geever, fans rapidly thought who she was describing. She later on validated Geever was the vocalist.) “It was the most scary thing I’ve ever experienced,” Sarhadi stated. “I can’t worry how violent he was and just how much I totally thought I was going to pass away, that he was going to eliminate me.”

After participating in a celebration together, Sarhadi declares that Geever welcomed her to his motel space under the guise of listening to an unreleased tune. As soon as in the space, Geever presumably started limiting and strangling, and required Sarhadi to carry out foreplay on him, according to the fit. “When she might breathe, she consistently pleaded with him to stop,” the suit declares. “She was stunned and sobbing. He was mean and violent with Plaintiff; she did not matter and was simply an item for him to control.” Sarhadi declares she was just able to leave as soon as Geever “lost consciousness” on top of her.

Sarhadi’s suit mirrors the accusations that she initially shared on the podcast. Hours after the episode aired, Anti-Flag suddenly erased its social networks pages and revealed it was dissolving after 35 years without any more description. Geever later on rejected Sarhadi’s claim, stating he had actually “never ever participated in a sexual relationship that was not consensual.” Bollinger, Barker and Head stated in a declaration that while the band’s “core tenet” was “to listen to and think all survivors,” they had actually never ever seen Geever act strongly or strongly towards ladies.

In September, Wanderer released an examination where 12 more females implicated Geever of predatory habits, sexual attack and statutory rape throughout the United States and Europe, going back to the 1990s and as just recently as 2020. Numerous explained themselves as Anti-Flag fans who formed their social and political beliefs around Geever and the band’s messaging, just for Geever to supposedly exploit his position for his own sexual satisfaction.

One female was as young as 12 when she declares Geever pressed her into having anal sex when he was 17, and 3 females declare Geever strongly sexually attacked them. “He was a wolf in sheep’s clothes,” Jenn, who fulfilled Geever as a 16-year-old in 1997, stated. “He enacted raising ladies up, however at the exact same time, he was holding them down, actually.”

The other band members were slammed by a few of the females, consisting of 3 who state Geever brought them backstage and on the band’s trip bus as teenagers and girls. “They understood how young everyone was,” Rebecca, who dated a then-25-year-old Geever as a 17-year-old in the late 1990s, declared. “There was a clear border that he kept crossing over and over that must have raised flags for everyone.”

The suit declares Hardwork Distribution, that include Bollinger, Barker and Head, “must have understood” about Geever’s supposed conduct and “had a task of affordable care to enact policies and treatments to secure fans.”

“The choice to submit a suit takes terrific nerve and is typically not possible for many survivors of sexual attack,” states Sarhadi’s lawyer, Karen Barth Menzies. “Accountability is just achievable when survivors defend themselves and each other.”

“I forecast that in 5 years the music market will be seen the very same method as the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts– an effective force that likewise made it possible for and protected sexual predators for years,” another Sarhadi lawyer, Dr. Ann Olivarius, stated. “‘Drugs, sex & & rock ‘n roll’ was a truth that implied a great deal of girls got mistreated. The bands had handlers who made it all occur and executives who covered everything up due to the fact that a lot cash depended on it.”

Sarhadi’s claim was submitted under New York’s Adult Survivors Act– a 2022 act that opened a 1 year window for victims of sexual offenses to submit a civil fit versus their abuser despite statute of constraints. The window closes on Thursday and a number of suits calling prominent figures, consisting of Diddy Russell Brand Axl Rose and Bill Cosby, have actually been submitted in the act’s last days.

Formerly, Sarhadi informed Wanderer that she was reluctant to come forward versus Geever since he was an intense and public supporter for feminism and safeguarding females. It took up until seeing a confidential Tumblr post from a female who likewise meant having a violent encounter with Geever to press forward with informing her story. “I genuinely thought his personality, and what [the band] were constantly regularly, constantly singing and discussing,” Sarhadi stated. “I didn’t wish to be the one to take that far from anybody else.”