No criminal history. Two unknown female accusers. Witnesses and police reports that contradict their account. Did the Spokane Police Department jump the gun with the arrest of Polish death metal band Decapitated?
Last month, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officers arrested all four members of veteran death metal band, Decapitated. Two women in Spokane, Washington, had accused the band of first-degree kidnapping and rape following a performance at The Pin.
Band members Waclaw Kietlyka and Michal Lysejko appeared in a Spokane courtroom last Friday. Spokane Superior Court Judge Annette Plese set their bail at $100,000 each. Both band members also had to surrender their passports.
As part of their Double Homicide tour, the group had performed with Australian deathcore band, Thy Art is Murder. Following the accusations and subsequent arrest, the band had to cancel the rest of their performances in the United States.
So what did Decapitated do?
According to court documents obtained by the Spokesman-Review, following their performance on September 1st, Decapitated band members invited two women to a party in their tour bus. After “talking for some time,” one woman claimed that she was “grabbed and spun around to where she was facing the sink and mirror in the bathroom.” Band members then rape the woman, according to charges.
The second woman told officers that she had escaped after “kicking one of the band members in the groin.”
The band’s lawyer had previously said that eyewitnesses can dispute the two women’s accounts.
Decapitated speaks out.
Last Friday, the group issued their first statement on social media since the incident.
Refuting the two women’s facts, the group wrote that they would accept the court’s decision.
“We’d like to emphasize; the Spokane Police Department has pressed charges as procedural formality, without doing so, they would be forced to release the band – this is not a conviction or any indication of guilt or innocence. Once again, we ask that everyone wait for each party’s case to be presented and await the court’s decision.
“With that said, whilst cases are being prepared on both sides, some facts are indisputable at this point – that the original officer who took the complaint from the accuser stated, ‘I do not have probable cause that a rape occurred’, and it’s taken a full 30 days to file charges, which is right up against the point at which the defendants would legally have had to be released.
“The band firmly refutes the allegations and is confident that once the facts and evidence have been seen and heard, they will be released and able to return home.”
Police reports may back up the band’s claims.
Poking holes in the accusers’ stories.
The Spokesman-Review noted that a volunteer at The Pin claimed that the two accusers “were ‘groping’ and ‘all over’ the lead singer and another member of the band.” The volunteer also told police officers that he saw “one woman chugging a clear liquid.” He believed that the victim had consumed alcohol.
In fact, a Washington State Trooper had pulled over one victim’s friend for a DUI. The officer noted that the woman never “mentioned a rape” during her arrest.
Officers added,
“She spoke to someone on the phone and then said to him that her friend was raped by five men downtown.”
Detectives noted that one accuser had “significant bruising to her upper arms consistent with being restrained.” Also detected were “small abrasions to her knuckles that were scabbed over.”
In addition, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives had interviewed Kieltyka following the group’s arrest. He claimed to have seen both Piotrowski and Wiecek “engaged in sex acts with the woman in the bathroom.”
Awaiting the court’s decision.
Lead singer Rafal Piotrowski and bassist Hubert Wiecek will appear in court on Thursday, October 19th. Piotrowski faces second-degree rape charges. Wiecek faces third-degree rape charges.
Spokane Superior Court Judge also ordered “no communication between the band members.” Kieltyka’s attorney, Stephen Graham, criticized the decision as “inhumane by international law.”
“If they’re kept apart they, in essence, will be held in solitary confinement. Because they don’t speak English very well.”
Image by Greg (CC by 2.0)