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Investigation Into Allegations Against Shock Rocker Marilyn Manson Completed After 19 Months
More than a dozen women accused controversial shock rocker Marilyn Manson of sex abuse and domestic violence. It is now up to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to decide whether or not criminal charges will be filed.
Following a months-long investigation, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office must now decide whether or not to will pursue criminal charges against shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
The 53-year-old “Antichrist Superstar” singer, whose real name is Brian Warner, became the subject of a wave of sex abuse allegations which allegedly occurred between 2009 and and 2011, prompting an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The department has now finished their 19-month investigation into Warner and submitted at least some of its findings to the District Attorney’s Office, according to Los Angeles’ KCBS-TV.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón will ultimately decide whether or not his office will file charges against the singer.
Gascón took to Instagram on Tuesday to give an update on the investigation.
“On Sept. 19, 2022, investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided partial case material to LADA pertaining to the sexual assault allegations against Brian Warner, also known as Marilyn Manson,” said Gascón. “There is more material that is still outstanding, however, we do not have a timeline for the additional submission from the LASD.”
Officials did not specify what material they were waiting on, though sheriff’s officials confirmed with several news outlets that their investigation was completed.
“Once we receive everything, experienced prosecutors will carefully and deliberatively review everything that has been submitted prior to making a filing decision,” Gascón continued. “This review will take some time, but rest assured, our office takes these allegations very seriously.”
The statement comes just one week after Gascón was asked for an update on the case as part of his #AsktheDA series on Instagram, according to FOX Los Angeles affiliate KTTV. Gascón responded at that time by saying he’d not yet received the case from the sheriff’s department.
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The investigation into the “Dope Show” singer began after actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood, who had been engaged to Manson in 2010, accused the singer of abuse on Instagram in February 2021. Wood said the alleged abuse began when the singer — who was 18 years her senior — groomed her as a teenager. The announced their relationship in 2007, when she was 19, though she's since said it began when she was 17.
Wood had previously testified about being a victim of abuse before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee in 2018 and the California Senate in 2019 — where she appeared in support of the Phoenix Act, which extended statute of limitations in cases of victims reporting sex abuse and domestic violence from three years to five years. She did not name Manson either time, but noted in her California testimony that the statute of limitations had expired before she could press charges. The act passed in 2020.
Wood’s allegations were at the center of the 2022 HBO series “Phoenix Rising,” which chronicled Wood’s rise to advocate and survivor.
After Wood named Manson as her alleged abuser, more than a dozen women came forward with allegations of abuse against the singer, including “Game of Thrones” actress Esme Bianco and model Sarah McNeilly.
Accusations ranged Manson allegedly isolating his victims to raping them, sometimes allegedly using drugs and starvation as tactics to keep them in under his control.
Manson has vehemently denied the accusations.
“My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners,” Manson said. “Regardless of how and why, others are now choosing to misrepresent the past. That is the truth."
Earlier this year, Manson sued Wood for defamation, claiming she “secretly recruited, coordinated and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse.”
In Tuesday’s statement, Gascón reminded followers that “the LADA is dedicated to providing care and assistance to all victims of sexual assault, abuse, and intimate partner violence.”
