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Ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson details context of “revenge porn” charges in new police report

Ellefson is filing charges against the person that leaked the videos that led to his dismissal from Megadeth, not the woman he was conducting the relationship with.

David Ellefson

Image: Gary Miller / Getty

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A new police report has detailed the background behind the leaked explicit videos of Megadeth bassist David Ellefson. The videos led to allegations of sexual misconduct, and Ellefson’s dismissal from the band.

The Scottsdale Police Department report, obtained by Rolling Stone, details that Ellefson met the woman involved while signing autographs in Holland in 2019. “They struck up a friendship and continued chatting through social media,” it says. “The second time they met in person was in the Netherlands at a hotel lobby to have coffee and a soda. He believes this was February 2020.

“He stated there was no physical contact and they just had a conversation. He stated there has never been any sexual physical contact between the two.”

The report also confirms her age as 19, and that Ellefson is pursuing charges against the person who leaked the video online, not the woman he had explicit video calls with.

The reports then says that interactions became sexual in “July or August,” with Ellefson and the woman starting to masturbate in front of each other over Facebook Messenger video calls. The report says: “He stated they had about four to five masturbating encounters. The last online sexual encounter was around February 2021. [The woman involved] admitted to Mr Ellefson that she had recorded two to three videos of him masturbating without his consent or knowledge.”

Following the posts surfacing online, Ellefson claims in the report he was called “a paedophile” by the person who leaked the videos. He also claims that Megadeth’s management told him this same person had previously harassed other band members. Ellefson was reportedly told “‘not do anything and sit tight’ because it would probably ‘blow over,’” the report states, however within a few hours, footage of Ellefson masturbating had surfaced on Instagram, spreading rapidly across the internet.

The woman involved then “admitted that she had shared the video with some friends but wasn’t sure how it got leaked out to others,” the report says. “She was remorseful and agreed to send out a social media statement on her Instagram account that she had been a willing consenting adult during their mutual virtual sexual encounter.” Ellefson then reposted this statement on his own Instagram, reiterating in the caption that the encounters were between two consenting adults.

At the end of last month, in a statement given to Rolling Stone, Ellefson wrote: “Recently, a very private video was illegally posted on the internet and false allegations were made against me,”

“The actions in the video were between two consenting adults and were recorded without my knowledge. I am working with Scottsdale Police Department in their investigation into charges regarding revenge pornography to be filed against the person who posted this video.”

“Also, my lawyers are preparing a defamation lawsuit to be filed against this person. This person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Megadeth dismissed Ellefson on 25 May. “We do not take this decision lightly,” frontman Dave Mustaine wrote in a statement. “While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.”

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