With this laconic and cryptic post on their official Facebook page, on the morning of March 23, 2018 at around 11:30 am, French label Season of Mist abruptly announced the breakdown of working relationships with the Colombian Washington-based black metal band Inquisition. It is believed that the announcement of Season of Mist is the consequence of the report published by MetalSucks at 9:23 am same day regarding frontman Jason Weirbach also known as Dagon having pleaded guilty to accusations of child pornography.
MetalSucks apparently has come into possession of documents from the Washington Superior Court for Snohomish County from which it emerges that photographic material depicting “young females in their early teens or pre-teens […] in clear sexual conduct” have been apparently uploaded to the photo sharing site Photobucket by a profile through the IP address traced back to Weirbach; this account used a false identity, with a name and a photo of a woman, reportedly in order to more easily obtain the photos. The facts go back to 2006 and three years later, during the trial, Weirbach pleaded guilty. According to MetalSucks already “in late 2007, Detective Karen Kowalchyk visited Weirbach and his wife at their home. While Weirbach was out of the room, his wife admitted that they were having marital problems, that Weirbach liked for her to dress up as a young girl when they had sex, and that she was concerned he might be looking at child pornography online; while his wife was out of the room, Weirbach admitted that the Photobucket images were his, and that he had pretended to be a lesbian while obtaining them online. Weirbach claimed that he had only ever looked at the images “out of curiosity.””
Weirbach, who we remember has already had to reject accusations of being a Nazi for playing in the NSBM band 88MM that has appeared in a compilation entitled Declaration of Anti-Semitic Terror, has in turn published a statement in which he declares himself innocent and maintains that the plea bargaining was a strategy suggested by his lawyer of which he repents today; an interesting point of Dagon's statement is that according to him the way MetalSucks describes the facts and leaks the court documents is misleading and manipulated. Therefore for the sake of intellectual honesty and objectivity, I also report here below the statement of Dagon responding to Metal Sucks, quoted from the official Facebook page of Inquisition:
To all fans, supporters and close ones, I would like to clarify some horrific misinformation generated by the webzine Metalsucks of a personal matter of mine in 2007: First you must take into account, everything Metalsucks published is taken from court documents that state charges and accusations rather than what was proven or admitted in 2007. Second, I never plead guilty to the charges and the original charges were dropped after the courts examined all evidence. I am not a sex offender, and I was absolutely innocent of all charges. The plea bargain was something the prosecutor insisted on and for the defense was the best option to end a lengthy legal process. Also, the background check webpage circulating is not entirely correct, it is definitely not showing what the Police background check would show you.
With my fullest respect to you, please read my statement Metalsucks had told me they would publish:
I made a very unwise choice of actions in 2007 which got me into some legal problems. After the investigation was conducted, a year and a half later after the initial charges, the original charges brought against me were dropped and a plea deal was presented to me. The investigation determined I did not have anything that fell under the original charge.
The police report suggested I had deleted and obstructed evidence which I deny to have done, however the obstruction charge was still part of the plea deal as was the other charge mentioned in this article. That second charge is related to viewing pornography in a public area, and again was taken as part of the plea deal. To be clear, I have no sex crimes, this did not involve any other person other than myself and I have moved forward since 2009 while having complied with all aspects of the law.
I wish to remain focused on my music and my absolute dedication to the art of Black Metal. Despite any personal views and judgements the followers and supporters of our music may have, I am a somewhat private person and have never cared for destructive sensationalism and keeping what I feel is private, private.
I hope my level of transparency is understood and I thank you, as always for having been so supportive of Inquisition.
With much respect to you,
Dagon
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com
MetalSucks apparently has come into possession of documents from the Washington Superior Court for Snohomish County from which it emerges that photographic material depicting “young females in their early teens or pre-teens […] in clear sexual conduct” have been apparently uploaded to the photo sharing site Photobucket by a profile through the IP address traced back to Weirbach; this account used a false identity, with a name and a photo of a woman, reportedly in order to more easily obtain the photos. The facts go back to 2006 and three years later, during the trial, Weirbach pleaded guilty. According to MetalSucks already “in late 2007, Detective Karen Kowalchyk visited Weirbach and his wife at their home. While Weirbach was out of the room, his wife admitted that they were having marital problems, that Weirbach liked for her to dress up as a young girl when they had sex, and that she was concerned he might be looking at child pornography online; while his wife was out of the room, Weirbach admitted that the Photobucket images were his, and that he had pretended to be a lesbian while obtaining them online. Weirbach claimed that he had only ever looked at the images “out of curiosity.””
Weirbach, who we remember has already had to reject accusations of being a Nazi for playing in the NSBM band 88MM that has appeared in a compilation entitled Declaration of Anti-Semitic Terror, has in turn published a statement in which he declares himself innocent and maintains that the plea bargaining was a strategy suggested by his lawyer of which he repents today; an interesting point of Dagon's statement is that according to him the way MetalSucks describes the facts and leaks the court documents is misleading and manipulated. Therefore for the sake of intellectual honesty and objectivity, I also report here below the statement of Dagon responding to Metal Sucks, quoted from the official Facebook page of Inquisition:
To all fans, supporters and close ones, I would like to clarify some horrific misinformation generated by the webzine Metalsucks of a personal matter of mine in 2007: First you must take into account, everything Metalsucks published is taken from court documents that state charges and accusations rather than what was proven or admitted in 2007. Second, I never plead guilty to the charges and the original charges were dropped after the courts examined all evidence. I am not a sex offender, and I was absolutely innocent of all charges. The plea bargain was something the prosecutor insisted on and for the defense was the best option to end a lengthy legal process. Also, the background check webpage circulating is not entirely correct, it is definitely not showing what the Police background check would show you.
With my fullest respect to you, please read my statement Metalsucks had told me they would publish:
I made a very unwise choice of actions in 2007 which got me into some legal problems. After the investigation was conducted, a year and a half later after the initial charges, the original charges brought against me were dropped and a plea deal was presented to me. The investigation determined I did not have anything that fell under the original charge.
The police report suggested I had deleted and obstructed evidence which I deny to have done, however the obstruction charge was still part of the plea deal as was the other charge mentioned in this article. That second charge is related to viewing pornography in a public area, and again was taken as part of the plea deal. To be clear, I have no sex crimes, this did not involve any other person other than myself and I have moved forward since 2009 while having complied with all aspects of the law.
I wish to remain focused on my music and my absolute dedication to the art of Black Metal. Despite any personal views and judgements the followers and supporters of our music may have, I am a somewhat private person and have never cared for destructive sensationalism and keeping what I feel is private, private.
I hope my level of transparency is understood and I thank you, as always for having been so supportive of Inquisition.
With much respect to you,
Dagon
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com