Former Anti-Flag frontman Justin Sane is facing a sexual assault lawsuit. Kristina Sarhadi filed the suit in New York under the state’s Adult Survivor’s Act. Sarhadi requested a jury trial in her filing. The suit accuses Sane of strangling and raping the plaintiff.
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Pitchfork reports that Sarhadi filed the suit yesterday (November 23). However, this is not the first time that she has spoken out against the former Anti-Flag frontman, born Justin Geever. In fact, her allegations against him surfaced earlier this year. Those allegations led to Anti-Flag abruptly disbanding. Additionally, it led several other women to come forward and state that they had been sexually abused by Geever.
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According to the suit, Sarhadi met Geever after an Anti-Flag show in 2010. She informed him that she was in a committed relationship and did not reciprocate his flirtations. That night, Geever invited her to a film festival. She accepted the invitation. After taking in the festival and an afterparty, Geever invited her to his hotel room, telling her he wanted to share a new unreleased song with her. The suit states that Sarhadi felt safe with the defendant due to the strong feminist stance of his music.
Once in the room, Geever allegedly yelled “Football tackle!” and tackled Sarhadi onto the bed. Then, he strangled her, forced her to perform oral sex on him, and vaginally raped her. After the act, the suit alleges that he passed out on top of Sarhadi. This allowed her to escape the room.
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The suit further states that the attack left Sarhadi with several psychological issues. She has received treatment for “C-PTSD, clinical depression, ADHD, emotional hyperarousal, and rejection sensitivity dysphoria” since the alleged event.
The suit names Geever, Hardwork Distribution, Inc., and an unnamed Doe as defendants. The suit alleges that Hardwork as well as the Doe knew or should have known that Geever “habitually and routinely engaged in sexual misconduct with young women and underage girls throughout the country.” Additionally, the suit accuses Geever’s co-defendants of negligence and negligent emotional distress. The suit accuses Geever of assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Sarhadi is seeking damages for lost income as well as medical and mental health costs.
“Justin Greever used his platform as a celebrated self-proclaimed ‘punk rockstar’ to groom and lure vulnerable young girls into feeling safe in his presence,” a statement from Sarhadi reads, in part. “While he sang about protecting women and standing up to abusers, it appears he was hiding an addition to power and control, harming countless women who have been unable to speak up before now. Today, I hope to encourage his survivors, and survivors of other predators in the music industry to feel hope again,” the statement continued. “What sexual predators take from us cannot be restored, but we are no longer the silent victims they want us to be.”
(Featured Image by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images for Coachella)
