Marilyn Manson Wanted on Arrest Warrant for Allegedly 'Shooting Snot' on Camerawoman: Sources
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A New Hampshire police department has an active arrest warrant for Marilyn Manson.
On Tuesday evening, the Gilford Police Department announced that they have an active arrest warrant for the 52-year-old rocker (born Brian Warner) for two counts of misdemeanor simple assault involving an alleged incident with a videographer at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion.
"Mr. Warner, his Agent and legal counsel have been aware of the warrant for some time and no effort has been made by him to return to New Hampshire to answer the pending charges," the statement read. "The videographer had been subcontracted by a NH-based company to video the concert, and had been located in the stage pit area when the alleged assaults occurred."
In a statement to PEOPLE, Manson's attorney Howard King said the misdemeanor claim — which can carry a jail sentence of up to one year and a $2,000 fine, according to the police department — was pursued after the videographer asked for $35,000 for the effects on the camera equipment.
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"It is no secret to anyone who has attended a Marilyn Manson concert that he likes to be provocative on stage, especially in front of a camera," King said in a statement to PEOPLE. "This misdemeanor claim was pursued after we received a demand from a venue videographer for more than $35,000 after a small amount of spit came into contact with their arm. After we asked for evidence of any alleged damages, we never received a reply."
"This whole claim is ludicrous, but we remain committed to cooperating with authorities, as we have done throughout, King added.
Despite King's statement, three concert attendees — including a security guard — told PEOPLE that they saw Manson spit and "shoot his snot" at the camerawoman.
"He was spitting everywhere and one time it got on her camera so she wiped it off and looked semi-irritated. He noticed this and kept purposely spitting on her camera," one attendee told PEOPLE. "I think her final straw is he got on the floor, got within 2-3 feet of her and hacked a giant snot rocket at her not the camera. She was pissed off and disgusted so she stormed off and he just laughed."
Frazer Harrison/Getty Marilyn Manson
"I stopped listening to his music after that and told my husband I would never go to another one of his concerts again," she added.
A second attendee concurred, stating that he "bent down to shoot his snot all over this woman. I can remember him just laughing about what he did."
"I was right there when it happened, she was beyond furious when he did that to her," said a third man, who works as a security guard at the venue, according to his Facebook. "He spit on her a couple of times and then leaned real close to the camera and blew a huge snot rocket on her. After he did that, she almost threw her camera right down on the ground."
Manson visited Gilford, N.H. on Aug. 19, 2019 for the final stop of co-headlining Hell Never Dies tour with Rob Zombie.
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The news of the active arrest warrant comes several months after more than a dozen women accused Manson of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Among the women were actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Esmé Bianco.
Earlier this month, Manson's ex-girlfriend Ashley Morgan Smithline opened up on the cover of PEOPLE about the abuse she allegedly faced at the hands of the musician. (A member of Manson's team denied Smithline's claims.)
"He cut me on my stomach and then drank my blood. Then, he had me drink his," she says. "The more I let him hurt me, the more I loved him and the more I was proving myself to him."
So far, Bianco and Manson's former assistant Ashley Walters have filed lawsuits against the controversial singer.
In February, Manson addressed the abuse accusations on his Instagram, stating that his "intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners," calling the women's stories "horrible distortions of reality."
