{"id":7079,"date":"2025-07-26T02:22:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T02:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/anti-flags-ex-frontman-justin-sane-must-pay-assault-accuser-1-9m\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T02:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T02:22:20","slug":"anti-flags-ex-frontman-justin-sane-must-pay-assault-accuser-1-9m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/anti-flags-ex-frontman-justin-sane-must-pay-assault-accuser-1-9m\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Flag\u2019s Ex-Frontman Justin Sane Must Pay Assault Accuser $1.9M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tJ<\/span>ustin Sane, the former lead singer of defunct political punk band Anti-Flag, has been ordered to pay $1.9 million to a woman he\u2019s accused of raping in 2010.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Tuesday (July 22) federal court order holds Sane (born Justin Geever) liable by default because he\u2019s failed to respond to the assault and sexual battery lawsuit brought in 2023 by a woman named Kristina Sarhadi.<\/p>\n

\n\tSarhadi alleges Sane strangled and raped her at a motel in 2010, after they met at an Anti-Flag show at The Bell House in Brooklyn. She was the first of a dozen women <\/a>to come forward with sexual misconduct claims against Sarhadi in July 2023, causing the avowedly \u201cstraight-edge,\u201d pro-feminism band Anti-Flag to split up after 35 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tSane denied Sarhadi\u2019s claims as \u201ccategorically false\u201d back in 2023, but he never took any action in the lawsuit. Judge Brenda K. Sannes has therefore entered default judgment against Sane, a legal outcome where defendants are found to have effectively admitted to the claims against them by failing to respond despite repeated warnings.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Tuesday order requires Sane to pay Sarhadi $1.9 million in damages, including $750,000 for pain and suffering and $420,800 for the costs of therapy to address post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety stemming from the 2010 rape.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is well-documented through the supporting affidavits that plaintiff has suffered extreme emotional distress and a complete upending of her life, as evidenced by her symptoms which have persisted fifteen years since the date of the attack,\u201d writes Judge Sannes.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe damages figure also includes $750,000 in punitive damages, which a judge can institute to punish or deter a defendant for behavior that\u2019s beyond the pale.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe sexual violence committed by the defendant undeniably constitutes morally reprehensible or utterly reckless behavior making a punitive damage award proper,\u201d writes the judge. \u201cDefendant sexually assaulted plaintiff and shattered her emotional well-being, causing life-long ramifications years after the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendant\u2019s conduct is even more morally reprehensible because he used his fame and status to lure a much younger fan into his hotel room under false pretenses,\u201d adds Judge Sannes.<\/p>\n

\n\tSane could not be reached for comment on Friday (July 25). Sarhadi\u2019s attorney did not return a request for comment on the judgment.<\/p>\n

\n\tSarhadi\u2019s lawsuit originally alleged that the other former members of Anti-Flag \u2014 Chris Head, Chris Barker and Pat Thetic \u2014 should have known about Sane\u2019s repeated sexual misconduct but failed to put a stop to it. But Judge Sannes dismissed Sarhadi\u2019s claims against Anti-Flag\u2019s corporate entity, Hardwork Distribution Inc., this past December after finding that she had not adequately pled negligence on the band\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

\n\tStuart Slotnick<\/strong>, a lawyer representing Head, Barker and Thetic, told Billboard <\/em>on Friday that his clients \u201chave had no contact with Geever at all (nor do they wish to)\u201d since the sexual assault allegations came to light.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey were shocked to hear the complaints,\u201d Slotnick says. \u201cWe were very happy that the judge recognized that the three former members of the band had nothing to do with Geever or his misdeeds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Sane, the former lead singer of defunct political punk band Anti-Flag, has been ordered to pay $1.9 million to a woman he\u2019s accused of raping in 2010. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6527,956,6524,302,6525,2001,510,6526],"class_list":["post-7079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-1-9m","tag-accuser","tag-antiflags","tag-assault","tag-exfrontman","tag-justin","tag-pay","tag-sane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}