The attorneys representing the parents of Elyse Pahler, the 15-year old girl murdered by three teenage boys in 1995, have announced they will file a third amended complaint for damages in San Luis Obispo, CA Superior Court on Friday, March 23rd. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Burke gave the lawyers 60 days to be amended, saying they failed to prove that Slayer's music incited Pahler's murder in any way. Burke did not actually dismiss the lawsuit against the band but instead gave a 60-day window to file an amended complaint citing new evidence to support their argument that the marketing of Slayer's music to minors triggered the murder. Parents David and Lisanne Pahler intend on taking the case to trial as soon as the Judge believes there is sufficient evidence to proceed to a civil trial. The parent are accusing Slayer, their label and other industry and label entities associated with the group of intentionally marketing and distributing "death metal" to minors.
Attorneys Allen Hutkin and Patrick Coughlin believes the revised, 50-page complaint will push the case through. The new case provides additional studies and research showing the destructiveness of the music and how it's marketed to youth audiences. The case cites allegations from the September 2000 Federal Trade Commission report about the marketing practices of music, movies and video games. The new complaint also provides more insight into the group itself, complete with more lyrics and quotes from the band members regarding Satanism. Coughlin is a lawyer with Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, the firm that won the enormous suit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after proving the company's animated Joe Camel character helped market cigarettes to children.
Once the complaint has been filed, the defendants have 30 days to challenge it. The plaintiffs then have 30 days to respond to the challenge before the defendants have another 20 days to file a reply. Then the judge will schedule another hearing one to two months later. The case could possibly make its way to an appellate court due to the first amendment issues raised.
Slayer's management has no comment.
In other Slayer news,they are currently working on their forthcoming album at
Warehouse Studios
in Vancouver with producer Matt Hyde. One of the working titles
for the
record is "Soundtracks Of The Apocalypse". 17 songs have been
written and the
band are currently working on 14 to be included on the record.
The remainder
will be used as bonus tracks or for use with a future
EP. Tracks include: "Threshold", "Disciple", "Addict", "Exile",
"Payback",
"Seven Faces", "Godsend Death", "New Faith", "Deviance",
"Scarstruck", "Here
Comes The Pain" (a reworked version of the WCW tune), "Gore
Point" and
"Warzone". Frontman Tom Araya is presently laying down his vocal
tracks.
Guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman and drummer Paul Bostaph
have
finished their parts. Watch for the album to drop in the spring,
most likely
May. In June, Slayer co-headline a North American tour with
PANTERA and
STATIC X opening. Still no word on the release date of that
mystery box set.
