Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

March 7, 2001 Ex-Trammps member Jerry Collins is convicted of attempted murder after being found guilty of bashing his wife's head into a sink and also pistol-whipping her. He is sentenced to a maximum of 35 years.

February 16, 2001 Country singer Andy Griggs is arrested just before 3 a.m. after taking a joy ride in an ambulance. Griggs and band member Kevin Weaver come upon the vehicle, with keys inside, in the parking lot of a Tallahassee area Days Inn, where they are on a tour stopover. The men take the ambulance for a short ride and return to the lot, where police charge them with grand theft auto. Griggs and Weaver are released after posting $1,000 bail each.

February 9, 2001 After being booted from the "reunion" lineup of the Eagles, guitarist Don Felder files a lawsuit against the group.

November 29, 2000 Chuck Berry's longtime piano player, Johnnie Johnson, sues the rock legend, alleging that he wrote the music for 52 of Berry's classics. The suit is thrown out by a judge who rules that the statute of limitations has run out on any claims.

November 27, 2000 Having been found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Sandra Rosas, wife of Los Lobos' Cesar Rosas, Gabriel Gomez, the victim's half-brother, leads police to a shallow grave in a nearby canyon. Dental records are used to ID Rosas body.

November 23, 2000 Jonathan King is arrested for sexual abuse of minors in the '80s (one year later he receives a seven-year jail sentence).

November 22, 2000 Ted Gardner, former manager of Tool, sues the members of the LA band, their corporation, and their publishing company, alleging breach of contract and fraud.

November 15, 2000 Michael Abram, the Liverpool native who broke into George Harrison's home and stabbed him in an incident earlier in the year, is found not guilty by reason of insanity at Oxford Crown Court. Abram is to be confined to a mental hospital for an indefinite period of time.

October 9, 2000 Dennis DeYoung of Styx, unable to tour because of debilitating fatigue, sues the band for touring without him. The suit is eventually settled, but DeYoung never returns to the fold. Styx carries on without him, but leaves most of his songs out of the setlists.

October 6, 2000 Three investors in Steven Seagal's as-yet-unreleased album sue the actor, alleging that he has no intention of completing the project. Michael Vanderhoof, Michael Khaled, and Donald Danks claim they put a total of $600,000 into the recording of the album and the making of an accompanying documentary film.

October 3, 2000 45-year-old Mark David Chapman, the man who twenty years earlier fired five shots into John Lennon's back, faces the parole board. Parole for John Lennon's murderer is denied, with the board stating that letting him free would "deprecate the seriousness of the crime."

September 22, 2000 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony rapper Flesh-N-Bone (Stanley Howse) is sentenced in a Los Angeles court to 10 years in prison for assault with an AK-47 rifle and possession of a gun, which is illegal for an ex-convict. Howse faces nearly 20 years in prison but receives a lesser sentence after his attorneys present evidence that he was an abused child.

September 1, 2000 The last remaining original member of The Platters, Herb Reed, is awarded a court injunction against a group using the same name but containing no actual original members.

August 8, 2000 A class action lawsuit is filed against the major record labels, claiming that they kept CD prices high by punishing retailers who sold the discs for less than their "minimum advertised price." The case was eventually settled for $143 million, with 3.48 million claimants who bought CDs between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000 receiving checks for $13.86.

July 26, 2000 The file-sharing service Napster is ordered by a US federal judge to cease trading copyrighted music files in the next 48 hours.

June 23, 2000 Michael Jackson is sued by a German promoter for $21 million after the singer cancels two once-in-a-lifetime millennial New Year's concerts.

June 3, 2000 Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts is arrested after allegedly trashing his house, threatening his wife's life, and then disappearing. He is captured and ordered to get psychiatric help.

May 1, 2000 Former Village Voice scribe Jimmy McDonough sues Neil Young for $1.8 million in civil court for allegedly backing down from his agreement to authorize a biography McDonough spent years writing.

March 28, 2000 Jimmy Page wins a libel suit against the UK magazine Ministry, which printed that he tried to revive his dying bandmate John Bonham by using Satanic spells.

February 24, 2000 Georgie Fame is arrested for a DUI after driving home from his concert in Wales. He's fined 350 pounds and has his driver's licensed suspended for a year.

January 11, 2000 After serving half of his four-month sentence for possession of child pornography, Gary Glitter is released from a British jail.

November 12, 1999 Glam legend Gary Glitter is acquitted in England's Bristol Crown Court of sexual assault on a minor stemming from an incident with a fan in the '80s; however, that same day, Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) is sentenced to four months in jail for four counts of possessing child pornography found in 1997.

October 25, 1999 Los Angeles sheriff's investigators search for Sandra Ann Rosas, the wife of Los Lobos singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas, after finding her van abandoned in La Puente, California. They arrest her half-brother, parolee Gabriel Gomez, for investigation of kidnapping.

October 7, 1999 Don Henley and Eagles Ltd. file a federal suit against Lovearth, a Sarasota, Florida-based Internet company, alleging that its registration of the domain names don-henley.net, don-henley.org, donhenley.org, theendoftheinnocence.com, and e-a-g-l-e-s.com constitutes copyright infringement.

September 22, 1999 Diana Ross is held in police custody at London's Heathrow Airport for several hours following an incident involving a member of the airport's security staff. Ross is arrested then cautioned and released following an allegation of assault on a female security officer during routine security checks prior to boarding a plane.

September 21, 1999 While being searched at London's Heathrow Airport, Diana Ross allegedly assaults the security guard in question and is detained for five hours.

September 17, 1999 Eminem's mother, Debbie Mathers-Briggs, files a lawsuit against him, claiming that his allegations in the press and on records that she was an unfit mother have ruined her life, as she can no longer get a job or a line of credit. In his song "My Name Is," Eminem raps: "I just found out my mom does more dope than I do." The case is eventually settled for $25,000.

August 17, 1999 Derek Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers is arraigned on charges of possession of illegal drugs and child pornography. He is sentenced to 300 hours of community service.

August 14, 1999 Former teen idol Leif Garrett pleads guilty to drug possession in Los Angeles and is ordered into rehab.

June 29, 1999 Former teen heartthrob Leif Garrett is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine.