Margaret Morris, a member of Larkin Grimm’s former band Heroes Are Gang Leaders, has challenged Grimm’s sexual harassment allegations against fellow band member Thomas Sayers Ellis. “Grimm’s public depictions of [Sayers] are errant and libelius [sic],” Morris wrote in a statement posted to the band’s Facebook page.
“Clearly Larkin Grimm is not well. Mental illness does not equate with dishonesty,” Morris begins the post. She goes on to claim that Grimm “wove a tapestry of lies” during her tenure in HAGL, and that when accused of discrepancies, Grimm “fabricated sexual harassment allegations against the main three band members.” Morris also challenges the veracity of Grimm’s recent rape allegation against Swans‘ Michael Gira.
To review: Grimm first accused Ellis of a nonspecific “traumatic incidence of sexual harassment” in a Facebook post on February 25. Later the same day, she explained her reason for speaking out by detailing her alleged rape by Gira during the recording of her 2008 album, Parplar. Gira’s wife Jennifer responded with a lengthy Facebook post describing Grimm as “mentally unbalanced.” Gira first called the accusation as a “slanderous lie,” but later gave his own account of the incident with Grimm, saying it was an “ill-advised tryst” that “fortunately was not consummated.” Grimm countered Gira’s characterization, saying, “Unfortunately, this was still rape.” This week, she also released a new song, “I Don’t Believe,” dedicated to survivors of abuse.
Morris’ statement is the first official communication from Heroes Are Gang Leaders directly addressing Grimm’s allegations against Ellis. Read the full statement below, via BrooklynVegan:
Clearly Larkin Grimm is not well. Mental illness does not equate with dishonesty. However, in Grimm’s case, both are active to the detriment of my colleague and former life partner, Thomas Ellis’s reputation and career. I have worked with Thomas for years now, and though our personal relationship did not work, I know him well and deeply and Grimm’s public depictions of him are errant and libelius. I continue to work with Thomas professionally and I stand with him in this matter. Larkin Grimm has admitted in writing that, when off her medication, she lacks compassion and enjoys playing tricks on people. During her short tenure with Heroes Are Gang Leaders, she wove a tapestry of lies about her past marriage, false suicide attempts, and a number of other stories that she carefully tailored to the particular listener in order to garner their sympathy and rely on their decency to keep her confidences private. As her statements became bolder and more difficult to fathom, members of HAGL began discussing them and quickly discovered that Larkin Grimm is a very calculating liar. When she feared her place in the band was in jeopardy, she fabricated sexual harassment allegations against the main three band members who saw through her lies and wanted her out. Later she addressed the entire group, promising no more lies and that she was trying to be a better person–that she felt that the person she was when she was playing was the better person that she strived to be in life. Unfortunately, Grimm has not been successful in that aim. She went on to publically conflate an unfortunate incident within my then broken relationship with Thomas Ellis–an incident she uses lies to describe–with a rape allegation she made against producer Michael Gira from 2008, two completely unrelated stories beyond Grimm’s opportunistic linking in order to publicise her new album.
-Margaret Morris of Heroes Are Gang Leaders
