The Punk Rock Predator for Dummies: A Summary of The Allegations in Rolling Stone's Exposé on Anti-Flag's Justin Geever
Cutting to the Heart of the Thing
Part 2 of my piece on the scandal surrounding the allegations of sexual misconduct against Justin Geever (aka Justin Sane) of Anti-Flag delves into what I think are glaring oversights surrounding the coverage and dissemenation of the allegations against both Geever and the band. Central in that reporting is Rolling Stone’s piece The Punk Rock Predator by Cheyenne Roundtree, which chronicled 12 new accusations against Geever in addition to Sarhadi’s. These allegations varied in severity, ranging from “predatory conduct” within consensual encounters, to outright allegations of both rape and statutory rape. Roundtree’s piece garnered a lot of attention and at least publicly was seen as the final nail in the coffin of Geever and Anti-Flag, though it’s not as if that coffin hadn’t been shut since the allegations became public knowledge.
However, when reading Roundtree’s piece I found the exact details of who, what, where, when etc. very difficult to follow, the actual allegations interrupted by asides about the band’s career or ethos, allegations left half finished, and a variety of other issues. Details are inconsistent, ages, locations and the like appear for some accusers but not others, timelines become muddy, the amount of evidence and the quality of it varies wildly from accusation to accusation. I also personally feel that Roundtree does not do a good job meaningfully differentiating between which encounters are explicitly or appear to be consensual and explicitly nonconsensual, weaving them together. I eventually found myself having to take notes in order to follow what was being said and nail down specifics.
What follows is those notes, and I think when actually compiled plainly, help paint a better picture of the actual facts of the case Roundtree is making. Having this as a separate piece also allows part 2 to flow better, acting as a separate compiled appendix of what is (and isn’t) in Roundtree’s reporting. I have done my best to be as objective as possible and use quotes, these are my notes, I’m trying to get facts straight here, but I am summarizing certain aspects, so there is an element of editorializing inherent. As with all my reporting, I’ve provided the primary source, you can check it against the article. As always, I have no insight into the truthfulness of any of these claims, I am merely reporting on what they are and the evidence provided by Rolling Stone to verify these claims.
A quick note on age of consent: While the age of legal majority in most of the United States remains 18 (Alabama 19), the age of consent varies from state to state, as well as country to country. In America the age of consent is 16 in 31 States, 17 in 7, and 18 in 12. Many states do feature laws concerning age gaps between two parties and I note these where relevant. In Europe most countries range from 14 to 16 with a few exceptions that are currently not relevant. The point here is not to comment on the wisdom or ethics of the age gaps that exist within these allegations, but rather to draw the important distinction between conduct that is subjectively immoral and objectively criminal.
0. Kristina Sarhadi
Date of Alleged Incident: 2010
Location: New York
Age: 22/Geever 35-36
Allegation: Sarhardi alleges that a few weeks after meeting at an Anti-Flag show she met up with Geever at a film festival outside New York City. After a showing of a film Geever was involved with Sarhadi drove Geever to a party. On the way to the party Sarhadi alleges that Geever made sexual advances in the car, which she declined. After the party Sarhadi alleges Geever kissed her on the front porch of one of the party attendees. Sarhadi then drove Geever to his hotel, where she joined him at the hotel’s bar where she alleges they drank a significant amount (both Sarhadi and Geever “breaking” their Straight Edge code of abstaining from alcohol) before accompanying Geever back to his room under the auspices of listening to then unreleased music. Sarhadi then alleges that Geever held her down and violently sexually assaulted her in his hotel room while they were both drunk.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Sarhadi told friends/family of the assault earlier in 2023 prior to coming forward on the enough. podcast
-A photo of Sarhadi with Geever.
Note: While Sarhadi’s allegations are included in the Rolling Stone piece, they were made prior on the enough. podcast and as such are not counted towards the “twelve more” accusations in the pieces subheading.
1. Jenn*
In the 10th paragraph of the story Roundtree references a Jenn, who was 16 when she met Geever in 1997. Jenn is never referenced again, nor is there a specific claim of sexual misconduct against Geever from Jenn. Jenn merely claims that Geever was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. However Roundtree’s piece claims 12 additional accusations against Geever and it appears Jenn is part of that count. Jenn does provide a photograph of her with a group of people including Geever. No reason is given as to why Jenn’s story is not elaborated on.
2. Molly Newborn
Date of Alleged Incident: 1999
Location: Not Given
Age: 17, Geever 26
Allegation: Geever allegedly tried to kiss her and bring her back to his hotel room. Ostensibly was unsuccessful in both regards.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone: None
3. “Rebecca”
Date of Alleged Incident: “Late 90’s” process of elimination based on the age they assign Justin would place it in either 1998 or 1999
Location: Not Given
Age: 17, Geever 25
Allegation: Alleges she dated Geever. Also alleges that the other band members were aware of the ages of the girls that surrounded the band.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone: None for either allegation.
4. “Suzanne”
Date of Alleged Incident: 2002
Location: Unclear. Article says they met in Cleveland, Ohio (Age of Consent 16) but mentions that he visited Suzanne’s hometown in Arizona (Age of Consent 18) and does not clarify where or exactly when the alleged activity occurred.
Age: 17, Geever 29-30
Allegation: Suzanne alleges that Geever took her virginity (location unknown, which is crucially important with regards to the question of statutory Rape) though Suzanne does not make any claim of it being consensual or not. Per Suzanne “I think I was groomed. He took advantage of his status and me being young”. Further Suzanne claims Geever gave his age as 19.
Evidence Provided Per Rolling Stone:
-A photo (in the article)
-Letters Suzanne says Justin sent her (1 letter shown in article, unclear if it or any of the others have been authenticated)
-Close friend of Suzanne claims she met Geever while he was allegedly dating Suzanne, Mother of Suzanne claims she didn’t see an issue with them dating because she thought Geever was 19.
5. “Mat”
Date of Alleged Incident: Between 2017 and 2018
Location: France and Luxemburg
Age: Unknown, simply described as a “college student”, Geever 44-45
Allegation: Mat alleges that conversations between herself and Geever eventually became explicit. She alleges that in June of 2018 she traveled to Luxemburg with her parents to attend an Anti-Flag show (Anti-Flag appeared June 18th 2018 in Luxemburg). After the show Mat alleges she accompanied Geever back to his hotel, where they had sex. Mat does not say the sex was non consensual in itself, but that during sex Geever choked and spat on her without her consent during one encounter, and insisted she shower after another encounter the following morning.
Mat also alleges that Geever’s claims of having never been informed of acting without consent in his first statement to the press are false because Mat sent Geever a long message ”detailing how using her for sex and easily discarding her had left her questioning her self worth” two days prior to Geever releasing the statement.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Message that Mat sent Geever confronting him about his past behavior in July of 2023 (not shown in article)
6. “Susie”
Date of Alleged Incident: August 2008
Location: Germany (Age of Consent 14)
Age: 15, Geever 35
Allegation: Susie claims that Geever took her to a shed on the concert grounds where they had sex. She does not allege the encounter was nonconsensual.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Email from 2011 between Susie and Geever where Geever refers to “a shack where we spent some time together.” The email further states “That night was very memorable, I know that it must have been a lot for you to handle - I hope that looking back it’s a good and not a bad memory for you.” Full email not provided.
-Friend of Susie’s who was at the show states that Geever and Susie were alone for some time that day, friend says she “knew “something” had occurred between the pair.”
7. “Stefanie”
Date of alleged incident: 2012
Location: Not Given
Age: 21/ Geever 38-39
Allegation: “Geever was attracted to her being an inexperienced 21-year-old” when they began sexual relationship. Geever allegedly “professed strong feeling for her” which Stefanie “now feels was a form of manipulation to get her to comply or be open to more extreme sexual acts.” Stefanie claims Geever put his hands around her throat during sex, which frightened Stefanie and began crying, which caused Geever to stop and apologize. Stefanie claims “we never talked about BDSM stuff” though elsewhere she claims she had been “forced” to call Geever “master”. She claims once Geever texted her about “domination fantasies” but she told him she didn’t like it. There is no mention in Stefanie’s account that their sexual relationship was nonconsensual.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Spoke to a friend of Stefanie’s who claims to have been aware of their relationship and claims Stefanie told her about the incident “soon after it happened.”
8. “Karina”
Date of Alleged Incident: No date given, dated “right as Anti-Flag was taking off”. Process of elimination would place this in 1996 or 1997 based on age they assign Justin.
Location: Not Given
Age: 16/ Geever 23
Allegation: “Sexual encounters would physically escalate with no discussion or regard for her comfort.” “I was one among many made to feel special, manipulated, pressured, and then just thrown to the side of the road.” “Developed an eating disorder and blamed herself for not being able to hold Geever’s attention.” “[Geever] convinced her it was OK for him to have sex with other women.” No specific allegation of non consensual sex.
Karina also alleges that Geever’s claims of never being informed of acting without consent are untrue, claiming she confronted him about it in 1999 and that he seemed sympathetic.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone: None for either allegation.
9. “Ella”
Alleged Incident(s): 2009 and 2013
Locations: Maryland 2009 (Age of Consent 16), Baltimore and Pittsburgh 2013
Age: 16 (2009), 20-21 (2013)/Geever 35-36 (2009)/39-40 (2013)
Allegation: In 2009 Ella alleges that Geever took her to a wooded location off site from a concert, kissed her and performed an undisclosed sex act before going separate ways. In 2013, after an Anti-Flag show she claims she and Geever had sex, but it was consensual. After the next show Ella alleges that she had sex with Geever again and that Geever “bound my wrists and gagged me”. Ella alleges she “explicitly told Geever not to perform certain sex acts, but he ignored her”.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Friend of Ella's claims that Ella told her about the 2013 assault weeks after it happened.
-Facebook post indicating that Ella was driving up to Pittsburgh in 2013
-Tweet Ella posted in August of 2022 “alluding to Geever and the Alleged Assault” (Tweet not provided in article)
10. “Elizabeth”
Alleged Incident(s): 2009, 2011
Locations: 2009 Unknown, 2011 Pittsburgh
Age: None given, timeline somewhat unclear. Article lists Elizabeth as 18 when she met the band in 2007 on Warped Tour, but the first sexual encounter happens after a show “two years later” ostensibly in 2009 which would place her between 19-20. An additional incident takes place in 2011, putting her between 21-22. Geever would be 35/36 in 2009, 37/38 in 2011.
Allegation: After spending time on Anti-Flag’s tour bus in 2009 Geever and Elizabeth go for a walk where he began kissing her and stuck his hands down her pants. Elizabeth notably does not claim this 2009 encounter was nonconsensual, merely that she was “torn because she was scared [and] I was very young” and “elated”. Elizabeth claims in the months following Geever would send her “unsolicited nude images” and call “unprompted while masturbating.”
Elizabeth alleges she and Geever fell out of touch until she reached out to him in 2011 while visiting Pittsburgh. Elizabeth alleges that Geever then invited her to a recording studio. When she arrived Elizabeth alleges Geever “immediately put his hands down her pants, began forcibly kissing her and made her perform oral sex on him.” She left quickly after. The next day Elizabeth alleges she and Geever were supposed to meet up for lunch but instead she met him at a hotel, where she claims Geever assaulted her. Elizabeth claims that Geever used a “spreader bar” and “hogtied her” without asking. She left after.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Pictures from 2007 show (Not in article)
-Two friends recall being told by Elizabeth. One alleges she was told “around 2018”, the other says she was told “roughly two to four years ago.”
Note: The only age Roundtree gives for Elizabeth is 18 when she meets the band in 2007, but there is no allegation of a sexual encounter at that time. The alleged sexual encounters happen between 2 and 4 years later, but Roundtree strangely makes no mention of Elizabeth’s age at either of those times time, nor does she distinguish that the 2009 encounter appears consensual.
11. Hannah Stark
Alleged Incident: “Early 2020” per Roundtree, February 6th and 7th 2020 per Scotland Police
Location: “United Kingdom” per Roundtree Manchester, England (February 6th)/Glasgow, Scotland (February 7th) per Scotland Police
Age: Not Given
Allegation: Stark alleges “Geever suddenly handcuffed her, spanked her, and forced her to perform oral sex, as he used degrading language toward her.” Stark also alleges that she tried to physically get away from Geever, but could not. Stark alleges that “she couldn’t breathe and then he eventually stopped.” “Stark acknowledges that she did not explicitly say no” because she “thought [Geever] would like that. Stark did make a police report in the UK on August 18th/19th 2023 (Over 3 and a half years after the alleged incident, a month after the allegations broke, and 2.5 weeks before Roundtree’s story was published.) Stark allegedly offered “a witness list and 300-plus items of documentation”. Roundtree reports that Stark says the Police informed her that they were declining to move forward with the case because she didn’t tell Geever “no”.
Evidence Provided per Rolling Stone:
-Photos of injuries (not in article)
-Messages with Geever (not in article)
-Conversations about the assault with friends (not in article)
Note: Hannah Stark posted the attached letter from the Scotland Police to social media, the letter is dated September 4th 2023, the day before Rolling Stone published “The Punk Rock Predator”. This letter contains some important information not present in Roundtree’s reporting namely that these alleged events took place across two separate days, in two separate countries, requiring that Stark traveled with or followed Geever. Additionally Anti-Flag did not play in Manchester on February 6th (they played in Manchester on the 5th), but Birmingham, a little less than 2 hours to the south of Manchester. They did play in Glasgow on the 7th, an almost 4 hour trip from North Manchester, and 5 hours North from Birmingham. Roundtree’s reporting does also does not indicate where this alleged assault occurred (hotel, residence, tour bus etc.). While obviously it is possible for all of these things to have occurred, given the tightly scheduled nature of traveling tours, the timeline and details here are very important. The letter does confirm that they are not pursuing charges though no explicit reason is given such as “Hannah didn’t say no” as Roundtree reports, rather that Hannah’s complaint does not contain the essential elements of a criminal offense.
12. Tali Weller
Alleged Incident: 1990
Location: Pennsylvania (Age of Consent 16, 4 year age difference allowance for those between the ages of 12-15)
Age: 12-13/Geever 17
Allegations: Weller alleges that she met Geever at a church youth group when she was 12 and Geever was 17. Weller alleges that she and Geever engaged in a sexual relationship for roughly a year and a half until she was 13 and that sexual relationship included anal sex. Came forward after friend alerted her to podcast episode.
Proof Provide per Rolling Stone
-Photograph of Weller and Geever (In article)
-Two family members allege that Weller told them about the nature of her relationship with Geever within the past 10 years.
-Facebook message between Weller and a friend alerting Weller of the enough. podcast episode about Geever. (Not in article)
Tumblr Post
Throughout Sarhadi’s appearance on the enough. podcast she makes reference to an anonymous tumblr post that named Justin on the blog “the industry ain’t safe”, a blog dedicated to publishing crowdsourced anonymous allegations against musicians that operated similar to the “shitty media men” list operated. Specifically the post said “Justin Sane from Anti-Flag. Am I really the only person that this has happened to?” and was published on March 21st 2022. In Roundtree’s article she confirms that this post was in fact made by Hannah Stark. The post didn’t make many waves when it was posted, it’s the last post on the blog which appears to be defunct. However Sarhadi credits this post that was made by Stark as the catalyst for her choosing to come forward. “Once I saw [the post], it was just no question,” Sarhadi explains. “If I hadn’t seen that, I don’t know. I could have gone back and forth on this for another 10 years.” says Sarhadi It is unclear when exactly Sarhadi found this blog post or what amount of contact, if any, she had with Stark prior to coming forward.
The European Tour
Roundtree initially reported that Anti-Flag had broken up in the middle of touring Europe, however Anti-Flag was neither in Europe, nor on tour when the allegations broke and the group disbanded, their last show had been a month prior on June 24th at Vainstream Rockfest in Germany. There exist no tour announcements or record of scheduled concerts for Anti-Flag in Europe, or any other country for that matter in July of 2023, the only announced scheduled dates being a US run with The Bouncing Souls in the fall. It is unclear where this claim originated, Rolling Stone is not the first to make the false assertion that Anti-Flag were on tour, however they didn’t catch it prior to reporting. Rolling Stone quietly changed the wording in the article from
”Despite being in the middle of a European tour, the group broke up immediately” to “Despite upcoming shows in Europe, the group broke up immediately.” though they do not acknowledge this correction in the piece, instead simply stealth editing it, and as stated before, Anti-Flag had no publicly scheduled dates in Europe for the rest of the year. However the verifiably false assertion that Anti-Flag broke up “mid tour” has continually been repeated everywhere from US Weekly, to the enough. podcast, to the bands official wikipedia entry (which also erroneously claims they were scheduled to appear with Dropkick Murphy’s on July 21st in Prague, who also were not scheduled to appear or in Europe at the time). While this obviously doesn’t invalidate all reporting, it is a good example of how sloppy, inaccurate reporting gets endlessly repeated and cited until it becomes a central part of the story.
I’ll go into the exact specifics of why I think this reporting is weak in Part 2, but I think these notes are able to give a good overview of what the actual accusations and proof are contained in the Rolling Stone Piece as well as the information present, or missing, in their reporting. However just right off the bat Roundtree’s article asserts that there are 12 ADDITIONAL accusations not including Sarhadi’s but as I noted above there is no specific allegation detailed or tied to Jenn in the piece, yet that is still counted towards the final count of 12.
As it stands in Roundtree’s piece there are 11 women making allegations not including Sarhadi, the actual allegations of behavior, the severity of that behavior, and the evidence vary significantly from one to the next. The evidence provided is far from conclusive.
*A Note About Jenn:
While specifics regarding Jenn’s allegation are missing entirely from the Rolling Stone piece, I would be remiss to not mention that a Vancouver based publication called The Georgia Straight DID publish an editorial written by one Raynee Novak, who is in fact Jenn, two weeks after the publication of Roundtree’s piece. This article DOES contain allegations against Geever that are entirely missing from the Rolling Stone article. Novak alleges that in June of 1997 when she was 16 she met Geever (24), who claimed he was 19 in Vancouver (Age of Consent 16) at an Anti-Flag show. After the show Novak alleges that she had sex with Justin in Anti-Flag’s van, that it was consensual but “rougher than what I knew”. Afterwards she claims Geever told her that he was actually 21. The two the corresponded through letters for “months” before Novak asked if she could see him again and then traveled to Pittsburgh to meet him. Novak alleges that she and Geever went to Anti-Flag’s practice space where they started to have what appears to have been consensual sex, however during that encounter Geever repeatedly asked her to have anal sex, which she declined for a period of time before relenting. Novak alleges that during anal sex she asked Geever to stop and that he ignored those requests. Novak continued to attend Anti-Flag shows throughout the years, that she was able to “disconnect” what happened between her and Justin from the band. It was not until the enough. podcast episode came out that “ripped open a wound I didn’t know I had.” according to Novak and that she noticed a similar pattern between her experience and Sarhadi’s.
Novak provides a picture of herself and Geever that was also present in the Rolling Stone article. No additional evidence is provided. It is unclear as to why Roundtree chose not to include any details about Jenn’s allegation in the original Rolling Stone piece.
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