Artist News Legal

Crystal Castles’ Ethan Kath sues Alice Glass over abuse claims

By | Published on Tuesday 7 November 2017

Alice Glass

Ethan Kath from Crystal Castles, real name Claudio Palmieri, has sued his former bandmate Alice Glass for defamation in response to her blog post last month which included allegations of sexual and physical abuse.

As previously reported, Glass was vague about her reasons for quitting Crystal Castles back in 2014. But last month, inspired, she said, by “the many courageous women who have opened up about their own stories” of abuse in recent weeks, she wrote a long post making a series of allegations against her former collaborator.

In that piece, Glass said of Kath, “the first time he took advantage of me was when I was around fifteen”. Of her subsequent decision to form Crystal Castles with her alleged abuser, she said: “I was very young and naïve and in a compromised position in my life. I perceived him as a local rock star. A lot of my friends from the punk scene had also been taken advantage of by much older men, so to me, it was a situation that had been normalised”.

She then described various incidents that occurred in the following years, including sexual and physical abuse, concluding that Kath “controlled everything I did”. She added that “leaving Crystal Castles was the single most difficult decision I’ve ever made”, and that she gave up on her band “not because I wanted to but because I had to”.

Kath pretty much immediately hit out at Glass’s blog post, telling Pitchfork at the time, via his attorney: “I am outraged and hurt by the recent statements made by Alice about me and our prior relationship. Her story is pure fiction and I am consulting my lawyers as to my legal options. Fortunately, there are many witnesses who can and will confirm that I was never abusive to Alice”.

Having consulted those lawyers about his options, the musician has now gone legal, suing Glass for defamation, among other things, and seeking unspecified damages. According to Pitchfork, Kath’s lawsuit denies all of the allegations made by Glass, adding that her blog post has caused him great emotional distress.

The lawsuit also states that since Glass posted her allegations, both management and booking agent have cut their ties with Crystal Castles, and a number of scheduled gigs have been cancelled. Kath then accuses his former bandmate of seeking to sully his reputation in a bid to garner attention for her own solo career.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims Glass set out to “ruin his good name and reputation in the industry”, and to “destroy Crystal Castles” and “in turn boost her own career”.

In a new statement alongside his lawsuit, Kath told reporters: “Alice and I had a long ongoing relationship both personal and professional. When she suddenly left Crystal Castles to handle her mental health issues and substance abuse issues I fully supported her. I will continue to support her quest to wellness but I can’t support extortion, false claims, and accusations put forth after the band attained new success without her”.



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