Hey everyone...

It's been a long time since I have used this blog to write something personal.  I used to do it all the time...but it became hard for me to write about what I was going through.  As many of you know...last year I went through a lot.

A few of my friends in the music scene...you know who you are...have recently been asking me why I never wrote anything publicly in my own defense, or why I never contacted sites like punknews.org to ask them to post something in regards to how the case ended.  For a long time I just couldn't bring myself to write it down, I couldn't deal with reliving it all.  Even now I find that I have a hard time dealing with everything that happened.  For some reason though, it felt like maybe it was finally time to say something.

So this is a letter I have sent in to punknews.org.  I don't know if they will post it.  I don't know what people will say if they do post it.  It's the truth though.  It's the whole story about what happened.  It's kinda long...but...here is the letter:


Hey guys,

A year ago, your website posted about me getting arrested on charges of rape at one of my shows while I was playing bass in Love Equals Death. You posted about me getting arrested, and then leaving Love Equals Death, but you never posted anything else. It ended there, and as far as people in the music scene are concerned, I could be rotting in jail right now. I think I probably should have written this letter to you guys a while ago, but after everything that happened, it was hard for me to even think about sitting down and writing this.

So I wanted to send you the rest of the story – it's up to you guys whether you decide to post this or not. There haven't been any articles about the conclusion of this case, so I don't have any sources to give you other than myself, but I suppose enough of it is public record that you can check these facts if you feel the need to. The charges are being expunged as I type this.

First off, and I want to make this absolutely clear, I never raped anyone. Ever. And the charges of rape were dropped against me back in December. Even the state prosecutor involved in this case admitted that he didn't believe I ever raped anyone. The person that made these accusations against me changed her story about what happened that night every single time she told it. I want you guys to know the true facts.

On the night in question, I did not have sex with that girl. I did, however, make out with her in a park near the venue, in the middle of the day, and in full view of tons of people, despite the fact that I was in a relationship with someone else. We walked back to the show together and she stayed to watch all the bands. Later that evening, she went out to dinner with one of my band mates and spent the night with him. They went on to have a relationship that lasted several months. She was responsible for ending that relationship. The day after I had made out with her – the night that she alleged I raped her - she posted a comment on my MySpace page that said, "Dommy! It was so great to see you for the last few days. Come back to see me again, already! :)".  Several months later, while she was still dating my bandmate, she left me another comment that said, "I hear you are heading my way soon...:)". The comments are still on my page.

Almost a year later, the girl sent me an extremely vague email about how she regretted what had happened between us that day and how she remained bothered by it. She wanted to know if I was sorry for the way I had treated her. This caught me off guard and struck me as odd, but, since I had avoided her for the rest of that night after we had made out, and since she had moved on from our make out session to one of my bandmates so quickly, the truth was, I WAS uncomfortable about what had happened. I did regret the fact that I (a) let anything at all happen between us when I was in a relationship with someone else, and (b) ignored her afterwards. Prompted by her email, I figured that if she wanted an apology and would feel better about that night if I took responsibility for what had happened between us, I would apologize. So I wrote her and said sorry. My email was about the make out session and ignoring her for the rest of that day and night. I also talked about the fact that it was obvious that she had feelings for the other member of my band and also that I had gone on to make things right with my girlfriend, but that I was deeply sorry for what had happened. I thought it was the right thing to do and it bothered me that I had fucked this up and made this girl so mad at me. There was no talk of any rape in that email, because no rape ever took place. I sent the message, she never responded.

It was the email I sent her that day that she gave to the police. She claimed that the content of the message was me apologizing for raping her. They felt that, despite the open ended nature of the message, it was enough to have me arrested. Both of my lawyers later confirmed that this is indeed enough for an arrest, if not a conviction.

Since I was out of state, based in California, I was arrested in March, mid-tour, as a fugitive, even though I had no idea about the charges. I was arrested on a Friday night, and I spent three days in jail not knowing anything about who, what, or why I was there. I had no idea who would accuse me of rape. I had never had sex of any kind in Philadelphia or even in the whole state of Pennsylvania! I had no idea why anyone would accuse me of this. It was insane! Even the officers who questioned me believed me, and said "someone back east must really hate you". No one in my family, or the lawyer they had hired for me, could get any info on my charges, who was accusing me, or what were the details of what I was being accused of were. On Saturday, the Philadelphia Inquirer printed a story about my arrest and punknews. org had it posted on Monday. It was a phone call from my girlfriend while I was in jail, who read me the posting from your site, that finally enabled us to figure out who was accusing me.  The official details came a day or so later.

The case dragged on for all of last year and it was concluded in December. During the case, I was 100% honest about what had transpired on the day in question, meaning I admitted to making out with this girl. The prosecution agreed that I had not raped the girl but asked me to plead guilty to misdemeanor Indecent Assault because I had admitted to kissing her, and by her pressing charges against me it appeared that it was against her will, despite the fact that she made no indication of that to me during the act. By this point in the case, my legal fees had put me seriously in debt because I'd had to hire two attorneys for two different states. To continue to court would easily double the cost that I had already spent in my defense so far. My family and girlfriend offered to do anything they could to help me continue fighting to prove my innocence - my father was ready to sell his car, my mother and my girlfriend were ready to get second jobs, and even my friends donated money to the cause to try and help. In the end, however, I couldn't justify bleeding my family for money they simply didn't have. I was already in debt $20,000 at that point.

So, despite the fact that I never, ever, forced this girl to make out with me, touch me, or anything, and despite the fact that it was extremely difficult for me to plead guilty to something I absolutely did not do, I chose to take the charge of misdemeanor indecent assault for the sake of avoiding yet more emotional and financial strains on my family, my loved ones and myself.

When I accepted this charge, it was the court's intention to have me serve my probation at home in California. The prosecution stated that it was obvious I was no danger to this girl or to anyone else for that matter. I was given no restrictions or 'keep away' orders from her or anyone else. However, what should have been a regular probation for a misdemeanor offence became complicated when we realized that, in California, the charge of Indecent Assault does not exist. That meant that for California to supervise my probation they would have to treat me as if I was guilty of Felony Sexual Assault. Despite the fact that the prosecution argued that that was not necessary, the State of California was adamant that if I was to complete my probation there, I would have to be treated as if I had been charged with a felony. This to me was unthinkable and unacceptable. So in order to serve a regular misdemeanor probation, my girlfriend and I were forced to move to Philadelphia, leaving our family and friends. It has been very hard. I miss home a lot. But I do realize it could have all been much, much worse.

It's fair to say that the guys in Love Equals Death freaked out when all of this happened. I don't blame them for that – there isn't a guide book to follow in a situation like this. They made it clear to me that they needed to focus on the band and their career as best as they could, and that it would be best for me to focus on my defense. It hurt at the time, but I knew I did have to focus on defending myself. It was also true that I hadn't been feeling the band as much as they did before these charges were brought against me, and we all knew it. I know that some of the writers on your site have never been big fans of the band, but they have had it pretty rough. I honestly wish them all the best.

So that's the story and here I am. I have been slowly paying back the large debt I now have, and trying to enjoy the experience of living on the east coast as much as I can, though I look forward to getting back to the west coast as soon as I'm done. I've been working on a lot of artwork and I'm finally starting to write songs again. I have some friends that have been asking me to get back into playing and I hope to do so at some point. I took a break to try and remember why I loved music so much. If I do another band I just want to be really proud of it, if that makes sense. I'm sorry this letter is so long, but this is the first time I've written this down. I don't know if you'll post it or not, but since you guys reported the first part of the story, I thought you should know how that story concluded.

Thanks for your time.

Dominic Davi