Season of Mist have decided to drop Inquisition. The label that released the black metal band’s two latest efforts – 2013’s Obscure Verses for the Multiverse and 2016’s Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith, shared the news on their Facebook page. The post was brief and lacked any explanation.
“Season of Mist are no longer working with Inquisition. There will be no further statement.”
It would appear that this stems an incident that took place in 2009. Metalsucks has obtained documents from the Superior Court of Washington for Snohomish County stating that frontman Jason Weirback aka “Dagon,” pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in 2009. Based on this public record, NCMEC (the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) observed an account uploading sexually explicit photographs of “young females in their early teens or pre-teens” to Photobucket back in November 2006. This account inevitably led the police to Weirback’s I.P address. The following year, 2007, Detective Karen Kowalchyk went to visit Weirbach and his wife. His wife admitted that they were having marital issues and Weirbach wanted her to dress up as a young girl to supposedly spice up their intimacy, which only made her wife concerned that he might be looking at child pornography. Later, when his wife wasn’t in the room, Weirbach confessed to the Photobucket images as well as admitting he pretended to be a lesbian to obtain them online. He assured the police that he was only looking at them out of “curiosity.”
Metal Injection moved ahead with additional digging, discovering Weirbach had about 3GB – 16GB worth of child pornography on his computer, as the document claimed it could fill four “CDs/DVDs of digital and/or video images.” It’s also been reported that back in 2008, Weirbach was charged with Possession of Depictions of a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct. His lawyer ended up making a plea bargain during the summer of 2009, where he pleaded guilty and was charged 30 day jail time, $1,000 fines, two years probation, and required counseling.
Weirback has released a statement proclaiming his innocence that reads as follows:
To all fans, supporters and close ones, I would like to clarify some horrific misinformation generated by the webzine Metalsucks of a personal matter of mine in 2007: First you must take into account, everything Metalsucks published is taken from court documents that state charges and accusations rather than what was proven or admitted in 2007. Second, I never plead guilty to the charges and the original charges were dropped after the courts examined all evidence. I am not a sex offender, and I was absolutely innocent of all charges. The plea bargain was something the prosecutor insisted on and for the defense was the best option to end a lengthy legal process. Also, the background check webpage circulating is not entirely correct, it is definitely not showing what the Police background check would show you.
With my fullest respect to you, please read my statement Metalsucks had told me they would publish:
I made a very unwise choice of actions in 2007 which got me into some legal problems. After the investigation was conducted, a year and a half later after the initial charges, the original charges brought against me were dropped and a plea deal was presented to me. The investigation determined I did not have anything that fell under the original charge.
The police report suggested I had deleted and obstructed evidence which I deny to have done, however the obstruction charge was still part of the plea deal as was the other charge mentioned in this article. That second charge is related to viewing pornography in a public area, and again was taken as part of the plea deal. To be clear, I have no sex crimes, this did not involve any other person other than myself and I have moved forward since 2009 while having complied with all aspects of the law.
I wish to remain focused on my music and my absolute dedication to the art of Black Metal. Despite any personal views and judgements the followers and supporters of our music may have, I am a somewhat private person and have never cared for destructive sensationalism and keeping what I feel is private, private.
I hope my level of transparency is understood and I thank you, as always for having been so supportive of Inquisition.
With much respect to you,
Dagon
