Singer Off the Hook for ’95 Concert Incident

Citing insufficient evidence, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office will not prosecute Mark Adkins, the punk rock singer from Huntington Beach who was jailed briefly last year his arrest on suspicion of inciting a riot at a major punk show at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion in Devore.

“We did not file charges because we thought there was insufficient evidence to prove any of the crimes,” Gary Fagan, supervising deputy district attorney, said Wednesday, after the one-year deadline for bringing formal charges had run out.

Police arrested Adkins immediately after a performance with his band, Guttermouth, on June 25, 1995. Before posting bail, he was held for two days on suspicion of inciting a riot and misdemeanor assault on a private security guard.

“I’m quite relieved, but all along I knew I didn’t do anything wrong,” Adkins said Thursday from Denton, Texas, where Guttermouth is performing. “My attorney urged me to go out and tour as much as possible to prove that this was a completely isolated incident. We’ve probably done 130 shows since without a hitch.”

But Mike Reichert, an official of Staff Pro, the company that supplies concert security at the Blockbuster Pavilion and many other Southern California venues, was not satisfied. “If we had our druthers, we would rather have the charges pursued than dropped,” he said, adding that Staff Pro no longer work will at Guttermouth’s concerts unless the venue is one where the company already has been contracted to handle all events.

There were conflicting accounts of what happened during Guttermouth’s performance at the problem-plagued, daylong festival, Punk Rock ’95. Raymond Martin, a novice promoter who staged the event, said several days after the concert that he had heard Adkins say “get Staff Pro.” Alan J. DeZon, the Pavilion’s general manager, said at the time that he had heard Adkins tell the crowd of 5,600, “We’re not going to play until you tear this place apart.”

But Adkins and his band mates denied that he had said anything to incite the crowd. Adkins, who is known for facetiously baiting and cajoling Guttermouth’s audiences as part of the band’s broadly satiric approach, said he only had reprimanded the stage-front security crew for what he perceived as overly rough tactics in pushing back fans who surged toward the stage.

Venue officials cut short Guttermouth’s performance, and some in the audience responded by pulling up metal drainage grates from the amphitheater floor and hurling them onto the stage, according to eyewitness accounts. Guttermouth canceled two sold-out club dates in Los Angeles in the days following the Blockbuster blowup, but the band quickly resumed its normal performing schedule.

*

DeZon said he had not followed the progress of the investigation and had no comment about the district attorney’s decision.

Formed in 1989, Guttermouth has a long-standing friendship with the Offspring, the punk band from Orange County that broke through to massive commercial success in 1994. Guttermouth has toured Europe and the United States with the Offspring and has released two albums on a label owned by the Offspring’s singer.

Adkins’ arrest took place at the first punk show ever hosted by the Blockbuster Pavilion. The day was marred by several confrontations between fans and police not related to Guttermouth’s performance. Prosecutor Fagan said felony charges have been filed against four or five concert-goers for allegedly assaulting or resisting police officers.