On the face of it, it looks like he may skate on criminal charges. What the story doesn’t come right out and say is he better wish he had. He’s safer in prison then he is walking the streets. Unbeknownst to some, the Angels; who don’t believe in using the criminal justice system, are very likely to try him, convict him and punish him in their system.
Something verrrrry fishy (pun intended) about this story. It doesn’t read like a true story.
I have a feeling they’re not referring to Gordon’s earlobes.
Oh, it’s true. Not first hand, but very reliable 2nd hand knowledge. I was gonna post something on it the following morning but the biker who caught him in the houseboat said they were hoping to keep it out of the press. FTR, the surviving members of the Dead who witnessed this crap were all very troubled by it…not that they get to pick who they tour with.
If the whole thing is so cut-and-dried, why are the parents saying they want to put it behind them?
I don’t see what the fuss is about.
I’m a huge Phish fan, and I feel sick about this.
In Gordon’s defense, he is well-known for roaming around the lot at all his shows snapping pictures. Whenever he doesn’t have a bass in his hands, he has a camera.
JohnBckWLD, do you know something the article isn’t telling us? All it says is that he was found “late at night in a secluded area with a 9-year-old girl.” Please share.
I’ve been reading about this all morning.
The rub:
He’s a Segway fanatic and a film/photography buff. He’s riding around on his scooter backstage at the Jones Beach Dead show, where he’s a VIP guest. He makes friends with a little kid and they, with the mother’s permission, ride around together on the
piers.
Turns out the mother is a Hell’s Angel wife. She’s also a total bulging-eyed, crazed tweaker. When 10 mins go by and she can’t find her daughter, she FREAKS and sends a pack of Angels to find her.
They find her with Mike, and he’s taking photos of her on the scooter. They KICK THE SHIT OUT OF HIM, until it becomes clear he had permission to be around the kid. The mother admits she freaked a little, the daughter is returned to parents.
The police are involved now, Mike’s reputation is apparently pretty damaged. I think he surely exercised poor judgment, but was not molesting her.
Looks like it got totally blown out of proportion.
That’s what I’ve heard and read, YMMV.
hard to stomache this…
I hope it was sot of an artistic attempt by Gordon…
So far so good. Only minor discrepancies: He was giving all the kids backstage a ride and was even visible to the crowd while the Dead were on stage. Fact is everyone was cool and having a good time. Whether Gordon picked her because of her age, photogenic qualities or gullibility is anyone’s guess.
It was 20, not 10. But even after 1 minute, I’d freak to if my 9 year old disappeared.
Well a few facts as I understand them: Scooter parked backstage right. Gordon & 9 year-old nowhere to be found. Search commences. He took (abducted/kidnapped) her, without permission through a long tunnel that wraps around the back of the shell (arc shaped amphitheater). Following along a 24" wide pier and through a state park houseboat on onto a smaller vessel - completely out of view of every person there by at least 100 curved, twisted yards. Daughter wasn’t returned to parents, she was found by father / others. When they found Gordon, he was wearing a life vest, the child wasn’t. First reaction of witnesses: he was up to no good. Phish security arrived within a minute after the Angels found him. They let the Angels extract a little of their own brand justice with the proviso they didn’t kill him and kept face shots to a minimum. NYS security got wind and called in the cops. The did pop a few ribs and took a little vengeance out on his nads. No shit or urine was kicked outta him - he released that own his own.
Gordon was wrong. Period. Artisitic photos or not. No one implied he was molesting her and test results confirm he didn’t. The pictures contained in the camera were suggestive, but by no means pornographic or illegal.
The reason the parents have downplayed this is something I don’t agree with. Here’s their philosophy - I’ll paraphrase it the best I can. You kick the shit outta someone who spouts off or fucks w/you in a bar or out on the street. Gordon’s act went way beyond a simple dissing. His actions deserve either being sliced up or paying big time financial restitution. So the next time you see Gordon up on stage playing bass, you can rest assured it was the latter.
Didn’t know about the life vest - that seems rather odd. I’m thinking drugs running rampant on all sides, he meant no harm. I’ll reserve further judgement until more facts come to light.
This doesn’t jive with the next thing you say:
He did nothing wrong but deserved what he got? WTF?
So he ran off to a secluded area with the nine year old daughter of a Hell’s Angels leader to take artistic pictures.
Get this man a Darwin.
I’m betting my eyeteeth nothing more will come out publicly.
The life vest thing is weird for 2 reasons: Getting to the area he took her to was “mildly dangerous.” The pier they walked across to get to the boat was so narrow so he couldn’t have held her hand. If she would have fallen in the water, he would have had to have jumped in to save her, or she would have drowned. The fact he was wearing a vest implies pre-meditation. When he was found 1st impressions of the people who found them included, “were you planning on having you way and then drowning her?”
Dude, you can’t snip me the way you did and expect me to answer…unless that is you just left a Phish concert and don’t have full control of your mouse. The key words you missed were: something I don’t agree with and their philosophy
Why was Phish security there? It wasn’t a Phish show.
…or that he was just fucked up. Like her parents probably were. I’m not going to assume his intentions were the slightest bit evil just b/c of that.
Titling the thread “Mike Gordon is a Pervert” is a supreme overreaction, and a baseless accusation to boot. I still don’t see what he did to deserve what he got.
As a huge Phish fan, of course this story bugged me somewhat. However, I find it far easier to believe that Mike was just taking weird pictures and not thinking about the possible impropriety of his actions than to believe he is a pedophile.
My reasons:
–We’re talking about the daughter of a Hell’s Angel, and we’re talking about pissing distance from about 30,000 people. If he is a pedophile, he’s the world’s stupidest pedophile.
–He’s been in the public eye for nearly 20 years, in a band that a lot of people really want reasons to not like. There has never been an allegation like this. Why would be restrain himself for so long and then do something so stupid?
–As has been mentioned before, he is known for taking weird, impromptu pictures. If you’ve seen any of Mike’s work (lyrics, film, pictures), it’s clear that his mind doesn’t quite work the same way most people’s minds work. If the story had been about Trey or Page or Fishman, I would have (grudgingly) believed that an element of pedophilia was involved; since it’s Mike, I’m far more inclined to believe that he was just being weird. It’s consistent.
That said, it was incredibly stupid in an appearance-of-impropriety kind of way. As a fan, I’ll be explaining this for years to people who only paid enough attention to get the sensationalized version of the story, as portrayed here in the thread title.
Dr. J
Why?
All I know is that if some long-haired, druggie bass player dragged my daughter out to some secluded boathouse without permission at one in the morning to take weird pictures I would kick the shit out of him too. How many times have we heard the “he’s just weird” defense for Michael Jackson? I don’t buy it. 38 year old men do not just “make friends” with nine year old girls at parties and then spirit them off to take “art” pictures (at least not my kid, that’s for damn sure). The life jacket thing is also very creepy. Even if he was just on drugs, that, in itself, makes it an extremely irresponsible thing for him to do to sneak off with this kid in a potentially dangerous situation.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Gordon get quietly dropped from the band for “artistic differences” sometime in the next few months.
“Art pictures.” [snort]
But then, you wouldn’t take your daughter to see a band of long-haired druggies and leave her backstage with one of the band members, would you?
krazy kat, I think that he means that the bassist is well-known for doing really bizarre stuff already, whereas the others aren’t, which would leave less precedent for absconding with a little girl with only good intentions.