Randy Blythe Indicted for Manslaughter: Updated

According to Czech News site Novinsky.cz the state prosecutor's office officially filed charges against Randy Blythe, who is accused of killing a fan at a Lamb of God show in 2010. The court has three months to file a court date or to file for further investigation. Of course, Blythe had previously stated he would return to face any charges filed against him, he could face 5 to 10 years behind bars if convicted.

damn...

UPDATE: Statement from Lamb of God's manager Larry Mazer

After a three month investigation, the prosecutor in the Czech Republic has decided to move forward with an indictment of Randy Blythe on the charge of manslaughter with intent to cause bodily harm. Obviously, we intend to fight vigorously against these charges as we feel that in no way did Randy intend to cause bodily harm on the young fan who subsequently died from injuries sustained at the show. As he has stated previously, Randy intends to go to Prague to defend himself at trial.

While it is a tragedy that a Lamb of God fan died following a performance by the group, in no way do I feel that Randy did anything improper that led to the young man’s injuries and subsequent death. The price of a ticket to a show does not entitle audience members access to a band’s stage. In the years since the murder on stage of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, performers of all genres have had to become more guarded while performing in response to the dangers presented by fans trying to become part of the performance. We believe that Randy responded professionally to the numerous amount of fans rushing the stage that day, a number of them captured on videos that have been posted on the internet. We have testimony from the venue operator that acknowledges lax security and an improper barricade being used that evening. Numerous testimonies from fans also were contradictory as to the actions of the multiple fans that tried to access the stage 

At this point, all that the band, myself, and our lawyers can do is to present a defense and try to convince the panel of judges who will hear the case that Randy is innocent of all charges and that his name and reputation need to be cleared and that he be permitted to carry on with his life and career always mindful that a fan passed away after a Lamb of God performance.

District Court Denies Subpoena in Downloading Case

You may have read the reports about an attorney filing suit against illegal downloaders recently on behalf of Century Media, that on the back of Nuclear Blast doing the same thing a month earlier, now it appears  U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg has handed down a new development in the case throwing out 943 defendants in the case surrounding the two albums  Lacuna Coil’s Dark Adrenaline and Iced Earth’s Dystopia. 

Judge Hochberg (pictured below) concluded in order for all of the defendants to be lumped together "there must be a connection between defendants beyond the copyrighted work and method of distribution, namely that defendants were involved in the same transaction with the same downloader at the same time." The net result is one downloader, John Doe number one, will remain as the sole defendant.

Now this does not appear to absolve the defendants, if Jay R. McDaniel the lawyer representing the case for Century Media chooses to file them individually he can, and when I read the last report, I recall from the previous story there were 14,000 defendants listed in this case, and these were just defendants in the Lacuna Coil portion of the suit. There will definitely be more news on this in the future, but the courts are making it a little bit tougher, and labels might be less haphazardly suing in the future.

You can read the initial report on Blabbermouth.