Early in the morning of Tuesday, March 15, Christine Messersmith wrote a Facebook post claiming her ex-partner, former Portland musician Adam Forkner (of White Rainbow), attacked her in the home they shared in Los Angeles. She included photos of her black eyes and bruised body, injuries she says Forkner inflicted during the assault. The Mercury has reached out to Forkner for comment, and he has yet to respond. We will continue trying to get his response, and would like to remind our readers that those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty. This morning we spoke on the phone with Christine Messersmith, who commented on the alleged incident and its aftermath.
Messersmith’s full statement appears after the jump.
“The whole reason I made it public was… There’s a lot of reasons, actually. I was given no choice, because I didn’t have a voice.
To give you a perspective, the first time it happened was in Portland, when Adam was on tour with Deerhunter back in October. None of those guys knew it happened, no one in his band. But his close friends knew—I’m really reluctant to name names, because it’s not a black and white situation. I was staying at a place in Portland and I was staying there as a guest after he hit me the first time. I stayed behind in Portland, he went back to Los Angeles, because I couldn’t just go back. We were about to move into a place together. I needed time to reset and rethink everything. I asked Adam if I could stay with his friends in Portland, and Adam said it wasn’t a good idea. I went to a friend’s home. I haven’t even mentioned this at all, on the internet or anywhere else, but the night in Portland when I ran away from him after he hit me, I went to my friend’s house.
Adam chased me down with his car, he broke into my friend’s house, and he physically assaulted my friend, who was protecting me, and my friend had to physically hold him down. This hasn’t even been mentioned. Later, Adam told me that my friend suffered social repercussions from his and Adam’s mutual friends for trying to fuck me at a vulnerable moment. So that was before all this even occurred.
Adam told me about incidents where he had been violent towards two other women, but I don’t know the details, so I can’t speak for their experience.
The thing is, Adam has not been in denial of this. I have like, a fucking novel of text messages between him and I as evidence of full admittance. As evidence of me saying in the text messages, “I never acted against you, I never engaged in violence. You did this to me. Anything that I did to you during that time like smacking you off of me or kicking you off of me was an act of self defense.” And he, in the text messages, confirms this.
I know everyone’s just trying to make sense of this, and it’s very painful and shocking to hear that someone whose music you like or consider a friend has done this. And I can’t blame other people for how they’re going to respond, because honestly it is not just a crime against me. It’s a crime against the community.
I’ve never condoned violence nor have I asked for it. In this case, with making this public, it was obvious that I asked for the opposite. What I intended with this post was to give a voice to those who have no platform for their own suffering that’s been inflicted on them through violence, rape, whatever form of abuse… I want to say this more eloquently, but I’m really upset. I want to go on record that I believe that facing legal ramifications is a gift I’m giving to him. Because people who continue this cycle without any repercussions—they’ll continue to do it until they’ve lost everything. They won’t begin to acknowledge their problem because they’ve been an expert in denial, to have allowed it to go on.
It makes me a much stronger person to know that I have support. Nothing’s worse than going through this, and then being shamed, and then being shut out, and then having to be displaced without a home, without the ability to work a normal job schedule, without money. I needed the support in a massive way… I’m couch surfing. I don’t know if [Adam] has been arrested or not, because the detectives have not gotten back to me… I need to live my life… I don’t know… I’m by myself, you know? I’m still very scared. I don’t know where he is, or what he’s doing…
I haven’t heard back from the DA. The testimonies have been submitted to the District Attorney and I’m waiting on their response. I should’ve had it already, but I don’t know what’s going to happen.
I hope this creates and evokes a greater intolerance for violence and helps voiceless victims of every sort. Suffering is a universal experience. I don’t believe that suffering should be perpetuated in silence.”
We’ll continue to provide updates as we receive them.