Zach Dear, of Milwaukee bands Stone and Expire, accused of sexual assault by several women

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Zach Dear, frontman for Milwaukee hardcore band Stone and former guitarist for Expire, has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

Zach Dear — former guitarist for the late Milwaukee hardcore band Expire, and frontman for a new band, Stone — has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

Stone, which was signed to Pure Noise Records in November, has been booted from an upcoming tour with Knocked Loose. The band also has deleted its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, and Dear has deleted his social media accounts.

Before he removed his Twitter page, Dear posted an apology that was reported by Alternative Press, Brooklyn Vegan and the Shepherd Express in Milwaukee.

"While on tour I was shamefully promiscuous," Dear wrote. "It's not something I'm proud of but it is something I've been honest about. I lived by the rule that every intimate encounter was over when a woman said 'no.' In every intimate situation I've been in, my understanding at the time through body language, being kissed back, etc., was that everything was consensual. I am not the kind of guy who would intentionally harm anyone and — given the chance — I would apologize to anyone who felt I misinterpreted their signals or hurt them."

In his statement, Dear also said the band would take a break from touring.

On Sunday, accusations began appearing on a Tumblr page titled "Zach Dear is Cancelled." As of Wednesday, there were more than two dozen accusations on the page, including claims of rape and that Dear had sexual text conversations with underage women.

On Monday and Tuesday, Caleb Murphy, who played bass with Dear in Expire, posted several tweets in response to the allegations.

"Promiscuous or not, I never had any reason to believe any sexual encounter Zach had was anything but consensual and had any of us felt otherwise, we would have intervened," Murphy tweeted Monday.

On Tuesday, Murphy tweeted, "Zach is no longer my friend or our friend. From the bottom of my heart I’m sorry to the women that he assaulted. He used something I held very dear as a platform to prey on people. I’m proud of the women who came forward and named him and I’m proud of my friends who denounced him."

Murphy also said that all Expire merchandise will be removed from stores. After paying off printers for their expenses and taxes have been paid, Murphy said the band would donate the rest of the money in its account to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

Formed in 2009, Expire released three full-length albums and went on multiple tours, including in Europe and Japan. The band played a final show in Milwaukee last March.

Pure Noise — a respected punk label that's home to established acts Less Than Jake and Madison group Masked Intruder — was set to release Stone's debut album, "Inch of Joy," on March 2.

A Pure Noise spokesman contacted the Journal Sentinel Wednesday evening to say the label terminated its relationship with the band and would no longer release its album.

Dear is the second Milwaukee rocker in the past year to be publicly accused of assault.

Julian Sotolongo — also known as Jules Frank, former frontman for popular Milwaukee band the Pukes — was sentenced to 18 months' probation this month after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct by use of a dangerous weapon.

According to court and police records, Sotolongo pulled his pregnant ex-girlfriend from her car and hit her on Sept. 10. Records state he also chased her with a knife and threatened to cut the child from her womb if she wouldn’t be with him, stopping after a witness intervened.

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