The rape and kidnapping charges against Polish death metal bandmates who were arrested in Santa Ana have been dropped, according to prosecutors in Washington state.
Michal Mikolaj Lysejko, 27; Waclaw Jan Kieltyka, 35; Rafal Tomasz Piotrowski, 31; and Hubert Edward Wiecek, 30, were arrested around 2 a.m. on Sept. 9, which was shortly after their band Decapitated left the stage of the Observatory in Santa Ana as part of their “Double Homicide” tour.
An unidentified woman had alleged to police that she entered the band’s tour bus for drinks after a Sept. 1 concert in downtown Spokane, Washington, but was kidnapped and gang-raped by each musician in the vehicle’s restroom.
Police in Spokane asked their counterparts in Los Angeles to investigate, and it was LAPD officers who arrested the band members in Santa Ana and booked them into LA County’s jail.
The band’s attorney vehemently denied the allegations, and on Friday prosecutors filed a motion in Spokane County Superior Court to dismiss the charges. Trial had been scheduled to begin on Jan. 16.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.