SPOKANE, WA (CelebrityAccess) — Spokane County prosecutors have dropped charges of rape and kidnapping against the members of the Polish death metal band Decapitated, clearing the way for their return to their home country after months of detainment in the U.S.
According to the Spokesman-Review Waclaw Kieltyka, 35, Michal Lysejko, 27, Rafal Piotrowski, 31, and Hubert Wiecek, 30, were due to begin trial on Jan. 16th to face charges that they had gang-raped a local woman on their tour bus following a concert in Spokane on August 31st.
However, on Jan. 5th, Spokane County prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald filed a motion dropping all rape and kidnapping charges without prejudice, which leaves the door open for a potential future prosecution, the Spokesman-Review reported.
While Spokane County prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald did not offer a public statement on the motion to drop charges, the motion cited the “well being of the victim.”
“This has been traumatizing to her,” Fitzgerald told the Spokesman-Review. “It’s obviously something that is a multiple defender case, and it would be a lengthy trial.”
Attorneys for the band said they were not surprised by the prosecutor’s decision to move for dismissal.
“A close review of the evidence is all it took,” Jeffry Finer, the attorney for Rafel Piotrowsk told the newspaper. “We are not criticizing the county for moving slow. It just took a long time to get all of the evidence, all of the witnesses, and there were so many witnesses.”
Finer and Steve Graham, the attorney representing Waclaw Kieltyka said the four death metal musicians are now awaiting word from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as to when they will be able to return to Poland. The members of the band had been released from pre-trial custody late last year but had been prevented from leaving the U.S. while the trial was pending.
“All of them were saying they will always remember the kindness of the people here,” Finer told the Spokesman-Review. “We made it as reasonable a two months as we could while the county took its time and did its due diligence, and determined correctly that the case needed to be dismissed.”
