Band Loses Gigs After Drummer Defends Stanford Sex Offender Brock Turner

The band Good English is losing gigs and facing an online backlash after its drummer wrote a letter defending Brock Turner, a former Stanford University student who was convicted of sexual assault.

The drummer, Leslie Rasmussen, was a childhood friend of Turner’s, and she was asked to write a character statement for Turner’s trial, the New York Times reports. In her letter to Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, she blamed the charges against him on political correctness, according to reports.

She wrote, “I think this is all a huge misunderstanding. I think that the bikers who found him did the right thing by keeping him there in case he was attempting rape, but that after the investigation, it should have found Brock to be innocent.”

Brooklyn’s Northside Festival cut the Ohio-based Good English after the letter was made public. The music festival announced Tuesday on Facebook that the band is “no longer playing” at the festival “due to recent information brought to our attention,” the New York Post reports.

The Dayton Music Art and Film Festival in Ohio also cut Good English from its lineup, the New York Times reports.

“The safety and comfort of everyone who attends our festival is number one to us,” organizers wrote on Facebook. “Such actions should not be defended, friend or not.”

Rasmussen released a statement saying her words in defense of Brock had been misconstrued and blaming “the overzealous nature of social media,” the Times reports.