Judge Dismisses Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Justin Sane’s Former Bandmates in Anti-Flag
If anyone thinks I don’t hold bands that I like accountable to the same degree as the ones I don’t, I’ll have you know that I burned three Anti-Flag t-shirts following the accusations against vocalist and guitarist Justin Sane, whose real name is Justin Geever. The band proudly proclaimed themselves to be male feminists who stand against rape culture with songs like “I Wasn’t Asking for It” while they allegedly protected a predator behind closed doors. But while it remains to be seen if Geever will be held accountable, it now becomes clear that his bandmates will not.
For those who don’t remember, in July 2023 Kristina Sarhadi, a wholistic therapist and health coach from New York, appeared on a podcast called Enough to accuse Geever of a violent sexual assault during a 2010 film festival. The band immediately disbanded and deleted all of their social media accounts. Shortly after, 12 more women came forward to accuse Geever of abuse dating back to the ‘90s. Sarhadi filed a lawsuit against Sane and also named his band’s distribution company and all three of Geever’s bandmates — Patrick Bollinger (Pat Thetic), Chris Head, and Chris Barker (Chris No. 2) — in the lawsuit.
According to recently surfaced documents, the judge in the case threw out the lawsuit against the bandmates on December 18 while the lawsuit against Geever continues. According to Rolling Stone, the initial lawsuit named Hardwork Distribution, which was run by all the band members, saying that the company “had a duty of reasonable care to enact policies and procedures to protect fans.” The motion to dismiss states:
Plaintiff has not plausibly alleged that she was a ‘customer and business invitee of Hardwork’ in the motel room [where the assault occurred].
The decision leaves Geever as the sole defendant in the case, but according to Lambgoat, Sarhadi claims that Geever sold his home in Pittsburgh and has fled the country for Ireland where he holds dual citizenship. Ireland has a law that allows people not born in Ireland to claim Irish citizenship if a recent ancestry was born there, making it pretty easy to establish Irish citizenship even if you’ve never been there. But yeah, fleeing to another country certainly doesn’t make you look too innocent. To quote Geever’s own lyrics about rapists, “you’re nothing but a plague to the planet.”
We’ll see where the lawsuit goes from here.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault you can contact RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). You are not alone.
