Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe had no cause to anticipate something was awry when the aircraft he and his bandmates had been in landed at Ruzyně Airport in Prague, Czech Republic on June 27, 2012. Three days prior, Lamb of God carried out on the Gods of Metallic competition in Fiero Milano, Rho, Italy, and so they had been excited to return to Prague for the primary time since Might 24, 2010.
Because the musicians disembarked the aircraft and headed into the airport they had been surrounded by policemen armed with machine weapons and instructed to get down on the bottom. After singling out Blythe, they handcuffed him and hauled him away.
Blythe was taken to jail, and within the hours that adopted, he was accused of inflicting the dying of a 19-year-old fan, Daniel Nosek, who was on the band’s Prague present two years earlier. The younger grownup had climbed onstage and when he tumbled again into the gang, his head struck the bottom and he suffered inside accidents. Nosek later fell right into a coma and died. Throughout a police investigation, eyewitnesses who had been interviewed insisted that Blythe had shoved Nosek off the stage. The Czech press granted Blythe no leniency. One paper claimed he had punched Nosek earlier than maliciously shoving him from the stage.
Unaware of the adverse press, Blythe and the remainder of the band had been dumbfounded by the Kafka-esque scene that befell when Blythe was arrested, accused of manslaughter and brought to Pankrác Jail. On June 29, the police introduced that they’d formally charged Blythe beneath part 146(4) of the Czech Prison Code, claiming the singer deliberately injured Nosek and finally induced his dying. If responsible, he was going through between 5 and 10 years in jail.
The subsequent day, the State Lawyer filed a movement to maintain Blythe in custody after figuring out that the vocalist was a flight threat. A couple of hours later, Decide Petr Fassati of the town’s Eighth District Court docket set the chance — not the assure — of bail on the equal of $200,000. Lamb of God’s administration and attorneys tried to pay the cash immediately, however the cash was not deposited into the court docket checking account till July 3. Throughout that point, Blythe sat in jail, awaiting the subsequent step of the method. Beneath Czech legislation, as soon as the financial institution acquired the bail cash the State Lawyer had three days to resolve to simply accept the bail and let Blythe go till the trial or to problem it with a written grievance. As a result of nationwide holidays induced the courts to shut for 3 days, the legal professional didn’t file his grievance to the appellate court docket, the Prague Municipal Court docket, till July 9.
Then, the bureaucratic delays started. On July 17, a full 19 days after he was arrested, three judges on Prague’s Municipal Court docket sided with the State Lawyer and doubled the quantity of Blythe’s bail to $400,000. As well as, the State Lawyer filed a movement that may have compelled Blythe to remain within the Czech Republic and probably repeatedly report back to the equal of a parole officer till the trial was held.
The appellate court docket rejected the request to remand Blythe and on Aug. 2 it ordered the jail to launch the singer, since he had complied with the legislation and paid bail. Blythe returned the U.S. the subsequent day, however promised he would return to face trial. Whereas the accusation of manslaughter was flimsy at greatest and Blythe simply may have instantly extricated himself from the state of affairs by by no means returning to the Czech Republic, he remained true to his phrase and returned to Prague.
Blythe’s manslaughter trial started on Feb. 4, 2013 and lasted for six days. Throughout his testimony, the singer instructed the panel of judges that he’s nearsighted and performs with out glasses so he didn’t see precisely who got here onstage from the gang. However he mentioned that on the 2010 Prague present a fan clambered onto the stage and waved his palms round — hardly a rarity at steel reveals — and Blythe shoved him again into the gang. He returned the stage and tried to hug Blythe. Perceiving the person as a risk, Blythe grabbed the fan and led him to the sting of the stage, the place he jumped off. Quickly after, Nosek climbed up on the stage. Blythe believed him to be the identical stage diver he had beforehand confronted, so he pushed Nosek offstage, assuming the gang would catch him. Tragically, they didn’t.
Of their verdict, which got here down March 5, the judges decided that Blythe was morally chargeable for Nosek’s dying, however he was not criminally liable. The majority of the blame, claimed the judges, was as a result of insufficient safety measures offered by promoters and safety. Blythe was allowed to return to the U.S., however the case was topic to enchantment to the Prague Excessive Court docket.
The State Lawyer did certainly enchantment the decrease court docket’s choice and three judges in Prague’s Excessive Court docket heard the case. Blythe was not current and in the long run, his acquittal was upheld totally exonerating the singer from any wrongdoing.
In his ebook Darkish Days: A Memoir, Blythe wrote intimately about being arrested, spending 5 weeks in a Czech Jail and his weird journey by way of the nation’s authorized system.
Loudwire contributor Jon Wiederhorn is the co-author of Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral Historical past of Metallic, in addition to the co-author of Scott Ian’s autobiography, I’m the Man: The Story of That Man From Anthrax, Al Jourgensen’s autobiography, Ministry: The Misplaced Gospels In line with Al Jourgensen and the Agnostic Entrance ebook My Riot! Grit, Guts and Glory.
