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Megadeth moved quickly to fire co-founding bassist Dave Ellefson last month over his extramarital sexting scandal, police documents show.
Sexually explicit images from several video calls between Ellefson and a Dutch woman were leaked to social media on May 9, with the poster accusing the heavy metal legend of being a pedophile and "grooming" an underage person for sex.
Within five days, Ellefson was out of the band he co-founded with Dave Mustaine in 1983.
Ellefson was made aware of the leak the same day it was posted to social media and duly informed Megadeth's management, according to AZ Central. He was advised to "not do anything and sit tight," but within a few hours the leaked images had spread widely on Instagram and Twitter.
On May 10, Ellefson and the woman in question responded to the scandal, denying claims that she was underage during any of their interactions. Police later confirmed that she was 19 during the first sexual interactions with Ellefson. The woman admitted to recording the calls with Ellefson without his knowledge and sharing them with a friend. She says she does not know how they were leaked publicly.
Megadeth also released a statement on May 10, announcing that the band was aware of the situation with its bassist and that it was "watching developments closely." Four days later, Ellefson was informed of his impending termination, which became official May 17 and was made public on May 24.
More details in the case are coming to light now, as Ellefson and his lawyer, David Cantor, pursue revenge porn charges against the individual who leaked the explicit images and made the pedophilia allegations.
Cantor vowed that the individual "will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Ellefson submitted to a polygraph examination to start building his case against the leaker. Police were provided with a copy of that examination.
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