Ariel Pink Accused Of Physical & Sexual Abuse In Court Case
Last week, both Ariel Pink and John Maus attended the Donald Trump rally in Washington that led to the riot at the Capitol. (Pink claimed that he was just at the rally, not at the riot that followed.) Two days after news of Pink’s presence at the rally came out, Mexican Summer, Pink’s label, severed all ties with him. Now Pitchfork is reporting that Pink’s ex-girlfriend has made claims of physical and sexual abuse as part of a court case in Los Angeles — and that the court ruled against Pink on the same day that he was at the rally in Washington.
According to court documents that Pitchfork obtained, Pink had attempted to file for a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend Charlotte Ercoli Coe. Pink claimed that Coe was harassing him and that she’d been “falsely claiming [Pink] was a sexual ‘predator’ and falsely claiming to mutual friends and to [Pink] that he committed sexual offenses almost three years ago for which she has threatened to report [Pink] to police authorities.” Pink’s lawyer also claimed that Coe had threatened to go to the press about Pink’s alleged misconduct and that she’d sent a letter to Mexican Summer urging the label to drop Pink.
As part of his request, Pink asked for the court to order Coe not to “contact media outlets” about her allegations against him or to post about those claims on social media. Pink also sought $4,100 in lawyers’ fees and court costs.
Pitchfork reports that Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Laura Cohen ordered Pink’s request “stricken and dismissed” last Wednesday, the same day that Pink was at the Trump rally. Cohen also ruled that Coe was entitled to “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.” In her ruling, Cohen cited California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which is supposed to prevent people from using frivolous lawsuits to keep people silent.
In her motion to have Pink’s lawsuit dismissed, she made a statement, alleging multiple past abuses. One of them refers to a 2017 incident in which Pink reportedly drunkenly manhandled Coe while playing a show in San Francisco. (At the time, Coe was singing in Pink’s live band.) After that incident, Pink talked about it flippantly on Twitter, and he also wrote, “I’m tone deaf and not sensitive enough to the real plight of women these days. my behavior onstage was gross and I can’t defend it.” Coe, meanwhile, tweeted, “Wow. Turns out a girl can’t have fun with her boyfriend on stage without being victimized by feminists. Could not be more bummed.” Those tweets, from both Pink and Coe, have since been deleted. In her court statement, Coe wrote, “I did not consent to the attack.”
In her statement, Coe also wrote about the “power imbalance” in their “tumultuous relationship”: “[Pink] was 19 years older than me; [Pink] was famous, and I was not; [Pink] was established in the music business, while I was just beginning my music career.” Coe writes that, during their relationship, Pink “bullied” her into having unprotected sex, infected her with herpes, and illegally sent nude pictures of her “to some of his fans.” Coe also confirmed that she emailed Mexican Summer co-founder Keith Abrahamsson about Pink last year, writing that he was “10000% a predator” and that “I think he puts other people at risk.” Coe’s aunt also shared text messages, allegedly from Pink, that seem to confirm some of her accusations. Pink’s lawyer tells Pitchfork that the case is now on appeal.
You can read Pitchfork’s full and thorough account of the case here.