Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe is still locked up in a Czech prison. If you've just returned from a missionary effort with no internet access, Blythe was arrested a week ago upon landing at a Prague airport based on allegations of manslaughter stemming from a 2010 Lamb of God concert where a fan allegedly sustained injuries from being pushed by Randy, injuries which later resulted in the death of the fan, identified as Daniel N. You can read up on all of our previous reporting right here.
Today, we get new comments from Lamb Of God's manager, Larry Mazer; the first time he's officially spoken out. Mazer spoke to Czech news site Blesk.cz, declaring Randy's innocence. and here are the highlights:
Mazer on the latest court proceedings:
"I have no idea. The bail [in the amount of $200,000] was posted Tuesday morning [July 3]. We tried to make bail on Monday, but everything took a bit longer to be processed. Randy should be released immediately. His lawyer told us so on Saturday [during a court hearing]. In the U.S., he would have been. You post the bail and you're free.
I was told that it may take up to 20 days — that the investigator may require more time to investigate the case."
How the rest of the band is reacting to this:
"Everybody is shocked. It's absurd. It seems like a bad joke that Randy is sitting in your jail. He did nothing wrong. He is innocent."
Mazer on when they first found out about this:
Larry Mazer: "Last Wednesday [when Randy was detained at the Prague airport]. The organizer of the concert at Abaton [the club where the 2010 concert took place] now says that the Czech police contacted him three months after the boy died. I do not understand why no one got in touch with us to let us know. The boy was in a coma and then he died, and we never heard from anybody."
Blesk.cz: The Czech police say that they contacted the American authorities…
Larry Mazer: "No one told us anything. Do you think that I would send the band to the Czech Republic to play a concert knowing that something like this could happen? No way!"
A new report posted today on Blesk.cz says that Blythe, speaking through his attorney, is very sorry for the incident and would like to meet the family of the victim, Daniel N. upon his release, which will hopefully be next week. One of Blythe's Czech attorneys, Tomáš Morysek, also stated that Blythe would've immediately cooperated with police had he known about this incident beforehand.
On a positive note, despite previous reports that Blythe wouldn't be able to leave the Czech Republic on fears of him being a flight risk, his defense lawyer Martin Radvan has stated when he is released he will be able to return to the States.
Once again here is video of the situation, which clearly shows security is to blame and not Blythe:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQkpR4zdJb4[/youtube]
Finally, after the story being a week old, Rolling Stone has published an article with quotes from band manager Larry Mazer, similar to those that he gave the Czech newspaper that we posted above. You can read that story here.
This whole thing is getting outrageous. Today and tomorrow are Czech holidays so the courts are closed. The earliest Randy could be released is Monday, although it might take longer.
Finally, a petition to the White House has been started to free Blythe, although I'm not sure how much help that will bring, as 25,000 signatures are needed before anybody even notices.
As we've said, we will keep you posted with any new developments.
