|
[PLANET POP]
AGENCIES
Monday, Mar 31, 2008, Page 13
|
Bill Kaulitz of Tokio Hotel has disappointed tens of thousands of teenaged girls.
PHOTO: AFP
|
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett was arrested on a rape warrant and his case was turned over to the district attorney's office, which will consider whether to pursue charges, officials said Friday.
Rockett, 46, was arrested Monday at or near Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles police said. He was booked and released, and was awaiting an extradition decision by Mississippi prosecutors.
A woman in Mississippi filed a complaint that she was raped on Sept 23, 2007, at the Silver Star Casino, Neshoba County sheriff's investigator Ralph Sciple said.
"The subject, Rikki Rockett, forcibly had sex with an adult in one of the hotel rooms," according to a complaint.
Sciple said the woman contacted authorities several days after the alleged attack. He did not discuss details of the case, but said his office believed the woman's complaint warranted review by the district attorney.
Rockett, whose real name is Richard Ream, could not be reached for comment.
Rockett was booked into the Los Angeles County jail under his stage name and released early Tuesday, according to jail inmate information on the county sheriff's Web site. Sciple said there was no immediate attempt to bring Rockett back to Mississippi and a decision on extradition would await action by the district attorney.
|
Rikki Rockett faces a rape charge.
PHOTO: AP
|
Rockett and singer Bret Michaels founded Poison, the glam-metal band with a string of hits in the 1980s, including Talk Dirty to Me.
Meanwhile, best-selling author J.K. Rowling has been challenged by a Czech lawmaker to visit childrens' and psychiatric institutions she has attacked as inhumane, CTK news agency said Thursday.
"Since you opened your mouth, the work of our employees has been the subject of unjustified criticism," said Miloslav Macela in a letter sent to the Harry Potter author.
Macela shares responsibility for social care services in the central Pardubice region.
Rowling put Czech care institutions under the spotlight in 2004 when she denounced the "barbaric" use of caged beds in an article in the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, highlighting one institution where children were reported to be imprisoned almost all day.
Last year, she attacked the Czech Republic for topping the European league for putting children in institutional care.
The Czech government banned the use of caged beds and beds with nets at social care institutions from the start of 2007.
A documentary screened by the BBC at the start of the year alleged that some Czech institutions still used caged beds in breach of the law.
Chart-topping German male band Tokio Hotel was reported Saturday to have cancelled its US concerts next month as singer Bill Kaulitz, 18, prepared for surgery on his over-used vocal cords.
The former schoolboy band had earlier scratched its European concert tour because Kaulitz, idolized by hundreds of thousands of teenaged girls across the world, was at risk of turning from singer to squawker.
The mass-circulation German newspaper Bild said Kaulitz, 18, would undergo surgery on Monday and quoted the band's producer-manager, David Jost, saying, "Because Bill needs time to recuperate, we are canceling all North American concerts April 17-30."
The group sold out the venues it booked for a short tour of Los Angeles, New York and Canada last month, with fans singing along to the English version of the hit Monsoon. The group normally performs in German.
Tokio Hotel's first English-language album, Scream, is set for release in the US in the second week of May.
Recovering from much serious injuries is Tejano music star Emilio Navaira, whom hospital officials say is slowly regaining consciousness after he was severely injured when his tour bus crashed last week.
Navaira opened his eyes and moved his arms and legs Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.
He remains in critical condition at the hospital.
The 45-year-old singer was thrown through the windshield of his tour bus early Sunday when it slammed into a group of freeway barrels that mark the interchange of Interstate 610 and US Highway near Houston.
His injuries have required two brain surgeries, the most recent one Tuesday evening.
This story has been viewed 1769 times.
|