[Editor’s Note: The following article includes descriptions of sexual assault and may be disturbing to certain readers.]
Sexual assault in the local music community has been a topic of much discussion recently, with Portland’s Joel Magid being a central focus of the conversation and headlines.
Earlier this month the local musician took to Facebook to apologize—in an attempt, in his words, to be “accountable”—for sexually assaulting a woman while claiming to be blackout drunk.
“I recently sexually assaulted someone,” he wrote. “In this encounter, I pulled out my penis and forcibly lifted the woman’s skirt. A friend of mine intervened and stopped my behavior.”
“I’m not looking for sympathy,” Magid continued, announcing he was going to start AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] and seek a therapist. He was initially lauded by a number of people online for being “brave” and “transparent” (in addition to receiving a fair amount of criticism and anger). Magid’s apology landed him in news outlets like the New York Post and the Daily Mail.
A few days later, a woman became increasingly incensed by his post and publicly disclosed what she says she’s known for six years: She accused Joel Magid of raping her.
“Remember how I had to ‘furiously and broken heartedly’ explain to my best friend what happened that night after she found me lying in my bed with puke next to me?” she wrote in a public Facebook statement she shared with the Mercury. “Maybe it’s time for you to admit there are others, maybe even countless others, you have done this to.”
The woman notes that it was Magid’s Facebook post that spurred her to report him to the Portland Police. Magid did not respond to the Mercury’s multiple requests for comment then or for this article.
In fact, he remained silent until giving a widely lambasted, and now deleted, 23-minute interview with KGW last week.
Magid adamantly denied ever raping the woman who came forward after his Facebook post. He called what the Mercury had been reporting a “witch hunt” and said, of the fallout from his original Facebook post, “I’ve paid for my one crime more than I think I expected to.”