The split between founding members of Crystal Castles has gone from contentious to criminal.
Last week, singer Alice Glass accused former bandmate and ex-boyfriend Ethan Kath (real name Claudio Palmieri) of years of rape and abuse. Now Kath is hitting back with a defamation lawsuit.
How did all this start?
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Glass quit the band in 2014, after which Kath released a new song — and with it a statement greatly diminishing Glass’s previous role as just a sometime vocalist who didn’t even appear on all the band’s “best known songs.”
She responded on Twitter that “manipulative statements about my contributions to the band only reinforce the decision I made to move on to other things.” Things got worse from there.
It wasn’t for another couple years that Glass released a lengthy public statement on October 24, accusing Kath of sexually exploiting and abusing her from the time she was in 10th grade, writing:
“The first time he took advantage of me was when I was around 15. He was 10 years older than me. I came to in the back of his car extremely intoxicated (from drinks he had given me that night)… Over a period of many months, he gave me drugs and alcohol and had sex with me in an abandoned room at an apartment he managed. It wasn’t always consensual and he remained sober whenever we were together.”
Glass says the abuse continued over the years even as they gained some celebrity for their band:
“He became physically abusive. He held me over a staircase and threatened to throw me down it. He picked me up over his shoulders and threw me onto concrete. He took pictures of my bruises and posted them online. I tried to leave, and he swore that it would never happen again, that he would never physically abuse me again. More severe psychological and emotional abuse took its place.
He controlled everything I did. I wasn’t allowed to have my own phone or my own credit card, he decided who my friends were, read through my private emails, restricted my access to social media, regulated everything I ate. He berated me and yelled at me, telling me that I was a joke, that all the people that came to our shows were only interested in his instrumentals and that I was ruining the band. He broke glass shower doors to frighten me, he locked me into rooms. He told me that my feminism made me a target for rapists and only he could protect me. He forced me to have sex with him or, he said, I wouldn’t be allowed to be in the band anymore.”
Disgusting.
After the band’s manager denied having any knowledge of the nature of their relationship, Glass brought the receipts on Instagram, posting:
On Friday, Kath responded to the accusations by writing on the band’s Facebook account:
“Alice and I had a long ongoing relationship both personal and professional. When she suddenly left Crystal Castles to handle her mental health issues and substance abuse issues I fully supported her. I will continue to support her quest to wellness but I can’t support extortion, false claims, and accusations put forth after the band attained new success without her. False allegations take away voice from true victims and that’s what saddens me most about all of this.”
TMZ reports Kath has now filed a defamation lawsuit against Glass, claiming that her accusations cost the band $300,000 as their entire tour was canceled over the controversy.
These are some very serious charges; we’ll keep you up to date as more comes to light…
[Image via Last Gang Records.]
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