More On:
revenge porn
‘Throuple’ pol ordered to pay $220K in legal fees after ‘revenge porn’ lawsuit
Prominent young doctor ran ‘made-to-order’ revenge porn scheme: lawsuit
Lawyer shares her experience as a victim of revenge porn
Letters to the Editor — May 2, 2021
Allegations of online sex with a 19-year-old Dutch female contributed to David Ellefson getting thrown out of the thrash metal band Megadeth. The founding bass player’s May 14 ousting stems from alleged footage of him masturbating – in symphony with the fan he met at a signing – in a video that landed online.
Ellefson has filed a complaint with the Scottsdale police department, the Arizona Republic reported this week, alleging unlawful distribution of images. He acknowledged four or five “consensual virtual sex encounter[s]” and claims in the complaint that there had been no real-world sexual experiences with the woman. Ellefson is pursuing charges against the person who leaked the video online, not against the woman.
The Instagram poster remains unknown, according to the Republic, and it is unclear how the video was obtained. But Ellefson’s lawyers will be filing a defamation suit against that person in yet another high-profile revenge porn lawsuit.
In a statement to the newspaper, Ellefson said, “Recently, a very private video was illegally posted on the internet and false allegations were made against me.
“The actions in the video were between two consenting adults and were recorded without my knowledge. I am working with Scottsdale Police Department in their investigation into charges regarding revenge pornography to be filed against the person who posted this video.”
Whoever released the raunchy footage also claimed that Ellefson was “grooming” a minor — a term that now has particular power in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. But Ellefson denied the allegation, saying that all interactions were consensual and the woman was 19.
Ellefson, 56, who lives in Scottsdale, first became aware of the potential for this career-crippling release on May 9, when the claim “David Ellefson of Megadeth is a pedophile” appeared on Instagram.
A police report stated that the band’s management was made aware of the allegation, told Ellefson that the poster had harassed other members of Megadeth in the past and advised him to “sit tight” as it would likely “blow over.”
But it didn’t. Two hours later, the video of Ellefson allegedly pleasuring himself went online and quickly turned viral.
As reported in Variety, Ellefson posted on his now-private Instagram account that the videos and images were “released with ill intention by a third party who was not authorized to have them or share them.”
He also included a screenshot of a statement purportedly from the woman in the videos in which she allegedly claims that, during the pair’s interactions, she “was always a consenting adult… In the end, it was all consensual and all online.”
But that was not enough to satisfy his bandmates. Four days later, Ellefson was a solo act, with the band informing fans via Twitter that he was out. “While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward,” they wrote.
Ellefson is not the only celebrity to have gotten into hot water over online encounters that seemed private and went public. As reported in The Post, Kate Haralson was 19 when she met Matthew Perry on the elite dating site Raya. When they started talking on FaceTime, Haralson claimed to Page Six that the middle-aged actor asked, “Am I as old as your dad?”
Haralson, who posted a quick clip of their convo to TikTok, claimed to have told the former “Friends” star that he was a year older than her father and described the exchange as “weird,” although the encounter did not become sexual.
Ben Affleck did not fare much better on Raya after a disbelieving woman, known online as Nivine Jay, unmatched him. As reported by Page Six, she did not believe that he was the “Justice League” star, which led to the cut.
Trying to woo back the brunette beauty, Affleck sent a video in which he asked, “Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It’s me.”
Of course she posted the footage on TikTok, much to Affleck’s embarrassment.
But it’s tough to match the consequences endured by Ellefson who said that the raunchy footage reportedly showed “private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.”
Share this article:
Source: Read Full Article