logo
Drummer of rock band faces new charges in child pornography case

Drummer of rock band faces new charges in child pornography case

Daily Mail​08-06-2025
The former drummer of Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers has been hit with more disturbing allegations in a child pornography case.
Joe Seiders, 44, was arrested in April after he was accused of recording an 11-year-old boy using the bathroom in a Chick-fil-A restaurant in California.
Now, two more minors have come forward and accused Seiders of more unsettling accusations.
The drummer has been additionally charged with committing lewd acts with a minor by force or fear, using or coercing a minor to produce child pornography, possession of child pornography, annoying/molesting a child, and invasion of privacy.
On Monday April 7, Seiders was accused of recording the young boy with his cell phone while he used the restroom of the Palm Desert Chick-fil-A.
Then two days later, the Palm Desert Sheriff's Station received a second report at the same restaurant of a man following young boys in and out of the bathroom.
When deputies arrived they found Seiders and he was arrested.
After serving search warrants, the Sheriff's Office linked Seiders to both incidents alongside additional crimes, including child pornography.
'Evidence was located implicating him in the two reported incidents, along with additional crimes, including possessing child pornography,' the news release read.
The New Pornographers has yet to address the new allegations against the drummer.
Following Seiders's initial charges making headlines, his bandmates released a joint statement and said they have cut ties with the drummer.
They wrote: 'Everyone in the band is absolutely shocked, horrified, and devastated by the news of the charges against Joe Seiders - and we have immediately severed all ties with him. Our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by his actions.'
Seiders has been a part of the Canadian indie rock band since 2014.
The group was first formed in 1997, and the current members are Neko Case, Carl Newman, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Kathryn Calder.
Their former members include Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar and Grammy nominee Kurt Dahle.
The New Pornographers performed at Coachella in 2007 and 2011.
When their longtime drummer Dahle left in 2014, he was replaced by Seiders. He toured with the band and performed on their three most recent studio albums.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump's federal law-enforcement crackdown ripples through DC neighborhoods
Trump's federal law-enforcement crackdown ripples through DC neighborhoods

The Independent

time17 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Trump's federal law-enforcement crackdown ripples through DC neighborhoods

The main drag in Washington 's Columbia Heights neighborhood is typically crammed with people peddling pupusas, fresh fruit, souvenirs and clothing. On Tuesday, though, things felt different: The white tents that bulge with food and merchandise were scarcer than usual. 'Everything has stopped over the last week,' said Yassin Yahyaoui, who sells jewelry and glass figurines. Most of his customers and fellow vendors, he said, have 'just disappeared' — particularly if they speak Spanish. The abnormally quiet street was one of many pieces of evidence showing how President Donald Trump 's decision to flood the nation's capital with federal law enforcement and immigration agents has rippled through the city. While troop deployments and foot patrols in downtown areas and around the National Mall have gotten the most attention, life in historically diverse neighborhoods like Columbia Heights is being reshaped as well. The White House has credited Trump's crackdown with hundreds of arrests, while local officials have criticized the aggressive intervention in the city's affairs. The confrontation escalated on Tuesday as the top federal prosecutor in D.C. opened an investigation into whether police officials have falsified crime data, according to a person familiar with the situation who wasn't authorized to comment publicly. The probe could be used to bolster Trump's claims that the city is suffering from a 'crime emergency' despite statistics showing improvements. The mayor's office and the police department declined to comment. Stops are visible across the city Blocks away from where Yahyaoui had set up shop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police stopped a moped driver delivering pizza. The agents drove unmarked cars and wore tactical vests; one covered his face with a green balaclava. They questioned the driver and required him to present documentation relating to his employment and legal residency status. No arrest was made. The White House said there have been 450 arrests since Aug. 7, when the federal operation began. The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement and the president signed an executive order on Aug. 11 to put the police department under federal control for 30 days; extending that would require congressional approval. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump was 'unapologetically standing up for the safety of law-abiding American citizens.' Glorida Gomez, who has been working a fruit stand in Columbia Heights for more than a decade, said business is worse now than during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said many vendors stopped coming because they were afraid of interacting with federal agents. 'We need more humanity on that part of the government. Remember that these are people being affected,' she said. 'The government is supposed to protect members of the community, not attack or discriminate against them.' Reina Sosa, another vendor, said people are less willing to spend money. 'They're saving it in case something happens,' she said, like getting detained by immigration enforcement. Bystanders have captured some of the arrests on video. On Saturday morning, Christian Enrique Carias Torres was detained in another part of the city during a scuffle with ICE agents, and the footage ricocheted around social media. An FBI agent's affidavit said Carias Torres kicked one of the agents in the leg and another was injured when he fell during the struggle and struck his head on the pavement. A stun gun was used to subdue Carias Torres, who was charged Tuesday with resisting arrest. An alphabet soup of federal agencies have been circulating in the city. In the Petworth neighborhood, roughly 20 officers from the FBI, Homeland Security, Park Police and U.S. Marshals descended on an apartment building on Tuesday morning. A man extended his hands out a window while officers cuffed him. Yanna Stelle, 19, who witnessed the incident, said she heard the chatter from walkie talkies as officers moved through the hallways. 'That was too many police first thing in the morning — especially for them to just be doing a warrant," she said. More National Guard troops from other states are slated to arrive From his actions and remarks, Trump seems interested in ratcheting up the pressure. His administration has asked Republican-led states to send more National Guard troops. Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio have agreed to deploy a total of 1,100 troops to the city, on top of the 800 from the D.C.-based National Guard. Resistance to that notion is starting to surface, both on the streets and in Congress. On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo of California introduced a bill that would require a report outlining the cost of any National Guard deployment unrelated to a natural disaster, as well as its legal basis. It would also require reporting on any Guard interactions with civilians and other aspects of the operation. Forty four Democrats have signed on in support, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. While the measure stands little chance of passing while Republicans control the chamber, it's a sign of a wider Democratic response to Trump's unprecedented moves in Washington. 'Are L.A. and D.C. a test run for a broader authoritarian takeover of local communities?" Liccardo asked. He added that the country's founders were suspicious of "executive control of standing armies.' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said that 'Democrats continue to side with criminals over law abiding Americans." What kind of assistance will be offered? It's unclear what kind of help the National Guard will be able to provide when it comes to crime. 'The fact of the matter is that the National Guard are not law-enforcement trained, and they're not going into places where they would be engaged in law enforcement activity," said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and consultant at AH Datalytics. 'So I don't know that it's fair to expect much of it.' Trump declared in a social media post that his initiative has transformed Washington from 'the most unsafe 'city' in the United States' to 'perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour!' The number of crimes reported in D.C. did drop by about 8% this week as compared to the week before, according to Metropolitan Police data. There was some variation within that data, with crimes like robberies and car thefts declining while burglaries increased a bit and homicides remained steady. Still, a week is a small sample size — far from enough time for data to show meaningful shifts, Asher said. Referring to the month-long period that D.C.'s home rule law allows the president to exert control over the police department, he said: 'I think 30 days is too short of a period to really say anything." ___ Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman, Alanna Durkin Richer, Jacquelyn Martin and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.

Ice used Marriott chain to detain immigrants, despite hotel's 2019 pledge not to cooperate
Ice used Marriott chain to detain immigrants, despite hotel's 2019 pledge not to cooperate

The Guardian

time30 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Ice used Marriott chain to detain immigrants, despite hotel's 2019 pledge not to cooperate

A Sheraton hotel in Louisiana has been used by immigration officials to hold people who are being deported, in what appears to be a contradiction of a position Sheraton's parent company, Marriott, took in 2019 when it said its properties would not be used in cooperation with Ice. The Intercept first reported that the hotel, located on MacArthur Drive in Alexandria, Louisiana, near a major deportation hub and airport used by Ice, had been used by immigration officials earlier this month to hold a father and his teenage son for four days after their arrest in New York. They were then deported to Ecuador. The Intercept cited phone-tracking evidence that had been shared with the publication and was later seen by the Guardian. The evidence corroborates the account of a source with knowledge of hotel operations in Alexandria, who told the Guardian that they believed the venue had been used to detain immigrant families and unaccompanied children since it was renovated in late 2023. The source observed Ice contractors known to assist in the transfer of unaccompanied minors operating at the Sheraton as recently as June of this year. The source added that other hotels in the area have also been used to hold immigrant families. It is not clear whether Marriott has a formal contract with Ice or what the company knows about Ice's use of the Sheraton in Alexandria. In one case that emerged last year, Marriott sued a New York-based franchise after the hotel entered a partnership with the city for it to be used as an immigrant shelter, saying it had done so without Marriott's consent. Marriott did not respond to several requests for comment. 'It would be highly unfortunate if major hotel chains are facilitating the Trump administration's cruel policy of deporting families,' said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. In 2019, during Donald Trump's first term, Marriott rejected the idea that any of its hotels or properties – which include Sheraton and Courtyard hotels – would be used by Ice to detain immigrants. It made the statement at a time when the Trump administration was calling for a mass roundup of undocumented immigrants. Citing anonymous sources, ABC News reported at the time that administration officials had internally discussed the possibility that they might need hotel rooms because of limited capacity at Ice detention centers. 'Our hotels are not configured to be detention facilities, but to be open to guests and community members as well. While we have no particular insights into whether the US government is considering the use of hotels to aid in the situation at the border, Marriott has made the decision to decline any requests to use our hotels as detention facilities,' a company spokesperson said in July 2019, according to ABC News. The company's position won it plaudits at the time, such as public recognition by the American Historical Association, an association of professional historians, which announced in a public statement that it appreciated Marriott's 'principled stand' and noted the importance of immigrants to the hotel and related industries. It is well-documented that Ice does use hotels to house immigrant families who are being deported from the US or being transferred to other detention centers. In a case that attracted national attention in April, Ice detained two families in Louisiana with three of their US citizen children and held them incommunicado and under guard at a hotel for days on end, despite multiple attempts by family members and lawyers to contact them. The families, along with their US citizen children, were deported in the early hours of 25 April and, according to legal filings, had been held at a location in Alexandria. Filings in that case reviewed by the Guardian include a short, handwritten submission by one of the mothers written on paper that closely matches images of branded Sheraton notepads posted online. The Guardian could not independently confirm whether the families had been detained at the Sheraton in Alexandria. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The Intercept's reporting focused on the story of Edison Iza and his 15-year-old son, Roger, who were reportedly arrested by Ice at an immigration check-in New York on 9 August. The pair were then reportedly flown to Louisiana and 'locked up' in the Sheraton hotel, where they stayed for four days without access to their phones or the internet. 'We couldn't call or go on the web to ask for help,' Roger told the Intercept. 'Without our phones, we didn't know any names or phone numbers.' Ice did not immediately respond to the Guardian's questions about the agency's use of the Sheraton, including whether it has a contract with the hotel or uses it on an ad hoc basis. The hospitality industry is especially vulnerable to Ice raids and the Trump administration's deportation program, given the high percentage of workers in the industry who are undocumented. While the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance earlier this year that Ice agents were not to conduct raids at hotels, restaurants and farms, that guidance was later reversed, according to a June report in the Washington Post. About 34% of housekeepers, 24% of cooks and 20% of waitstaff employed by the US hotel industry is undocumented, according to the 2023 census. Additional reporting by Maanvi Singh Do you have a tip on this story? Please contact a Guardian reporter on Signal at 646-886-8761

Julio César Chávez Jr. deported to Mexico for alleged cartel ties and drug trafficking
Julio César Chávez Jr. deported to Mexico for alleged cartel ties and drug trafficking

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Julio César Chávez Jr. deported to Mexico for alleged cartel ties and drug trafficking

Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has been deported to Mexico, where he's wanted for alleged cartel ties, following his arrest in the U.S. for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application. Chávez was handed over by authorities and admitted to a prison in the northern state of Sonora, an official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Chávez, 39, had a warrant for his arrest in Mexico for alleged arms and drug trafficking and ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexico's attorney general, said the investigation into Chávez started in 2019. The boxer, who is the son of legendary Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez, was arrested July 3 days after his high-profile fight with Jake Paul in California. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the arrest she hoped the boxer would be deported to face his charges. Chávez's father was a massive celebrity in the 1980s and '90s who mixed social circles with drug dealers and claimed to have been friends with drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes. The younger Chávez has battled drug addiction for much of his boxing career, failing drug tests, serving suspensions and egregiously missing weight while being widely criticized for his intermittent dedication to the sport. Chavez won the WBC middleweight title in 2011 and defended it three times. He shared the ring with generational greats Canelo Álvarez and Sergio Martinez, losing to both. In 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. In January 2024, he was arrested on gun charges. Police said he possessed two AR-style ghost rifles. He was later freed on a $50,000 bond and on condition he went to a residential drug treatment facility. The case is still pending, with Chávez reporting his progress regularly. ___

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store