Trigger warning: This article contains descriptions of alleged sexual and physical abuse. Ariel Pink has been accused of physical and sexual abuse by his ex-girlfriend and former bandmate, Charlotte Ercoli Coe.
As Pitchfork report, court documents obtained reveal that on January 6th Ariel Pink lost his bid for civil harassment restraining orders against Charlotte Coe. The hearing illuminated allegations of physical and sexual abuse that Coe allegedly endured at the hands of Pink — real name Ariel Rosenberg.
Pink filed for restraining orders against Coe on August 10th, 2020. The court documents outline Pink’s claims that Coe harassed him by “falsely claiming he 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 also alleges that Coe “attempted to blackmail him with false allegations of sexual misconduct to his record label and financial supporters, to the media, including Pitchfork and Variety, and to the general public.”
The restraining order petition details a series of alleged incidents of harrassment. The most recent cites a letter Coe sent to Pink’s former record label, Mexican Summer, on July 29th, 2020. The petition claims that the letter was sent “with the intent of having [Pink] dismissed from the label.”
Ariel Pink’s restraining order petition requested a court order that Coe not “contact media outlets”, or post to social media about her claims of abuse, which Pink alleges are false. Pink also requested that Coe be ordered to pay $4,100 for lawyer fees and court costs.
On January 6th, Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Laura Cohen ruled Pink’s request “hereby stricken and dismissed,” citing California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute. The court determined that Coe, had “made a threshold showing” that her behaviour, which Pink had deemed harassment, were “Constitutionally-protected activities.”
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of meta, rock, indie, pop, and everything else in between.
The court documents detail a number of allegations made by Coe against Pink that detail incidents of physical abuse and sexual harassment.
Coe cites an incident that took place at a San Francisco concert in October 2017 that alleges Pink “physically attacked” her on stage. “I did not consent to the attack,” Coe alleges. She also claims that Pink “physically and mentally abused [her] during [their] relationship, including the 2017 incident at the San Francisco concert.”
According to a Reddit comment, Ariel Pink “pinned her down to the stage and got on top of her.”
“I began dating [Pink] in 2015, when I was 19 and [Pink] was 38,” the declaration by Coe detailed. “It was a tumultuous relationship, characterized by a power imbalance: [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.”
Furthermore, Coe alleges that Pink failed to disclose his herpes diagnosis and “bullied [her] into [having] unprotected sex with him,” and that he “infected [her] with herpes after [the two] had unprotected sex.”
Pink claims that he “never hid or in any way concealed” his herpes diagnosis from Coe and “any way attempted to manipulate [Coe] into having unprotected sex with the knowledge that he had the disease before his diagnosis.”
Ariel Pink denied the majority of Coe’s allegations in a November 2 response to the motion to strike his request for restraining orders on anti-SLAPP grounds.
Pink requested the motion be denied, claiming that “[Coe’s] claims that [he] is a sexual predator, physically abusive, and a pedophile are intentionally false, misleading and defamatory,” and, therefore, “are not protected free speech nor covered by the Anti-SLAPP statute.”
In a statement, Pink’s lawyer, Thomas Mortimer, told Pitchfork, “The pending matter is now on appeal and the subject of a separate lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court. It is [Pink’s] position that the speech and communications at the heart of the case are not protected and [are] defamatory.”
This all unfurled the same day Pink controversially attended the pro-MAGA rally at the White House.
