{"id":95863,"date":"2025-07-27T04:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T04:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95863\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T04:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T04:47:09","slug":"taking-back-sunday-allegedly-sued-by-former-drummer-mark-oconnell-over-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95863\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Back Sunday allegedly sued by former drummer Mark O\u2019Connell over defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <strong>Taking Back Sunday<\/strong> drummer <strong>Mark O&#8217;Connell <\/strong>appears to be suing his longtime bandmates, according to a newly surfaced lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The legal document was posted online by a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Emo\/comments\/1m98hbo\/full_lawsuit_filed_by_mark_oconnell_against\/\">Reddit user<\/a> who claims to have stumbled upon it. The suit was reportedly filed on May 27 of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Back in January, O&#8217;Connell <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/lambgoat.com\/news\/45472\/drummer-mark-oconnell-exits-taking-back-sunday\/\">announced <\/a>he was parting ways with Taking Back Sunday after more than 25 years in the band. Now, the lawsuit outlines the reasons behind the apparent fallout.<\/p>\n<p>The filing states:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;This action arises from the false and malicious statements made by Defendants [Taking Back Sunday], which were designed to harm Plaintiff [O&#8217;Connell] and to prevent Plaintiff from continuing to work with Taking Back Sunday as a drummer and songwriter and to prevent Plaintiff from garnering other business opportunities within the music industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The suit names each band member individually: <strong>Adam Lazzara, John Nolan, Shaun Cooper, <\/strong>and <strong>Jillian Newman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It goes on to allege that the band spread damaging claims about O&#8217;Connell, including that he was addicted to drugs, struggling with mental health issues, and was an unfit parent who posed a danger to children. The document pushes back on all of this, stating that O&#8217;Connell has been sober for two years, has no mental health issues, and is a devoted parent.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Taking Back Sunday failed to provide financial accountings and withheld royalty payments that were owed to O&#8217;Connell.<\/p>\n<p>As of now, it appears neither party has made a public statement. You can view the full lawsuit <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/g9y0yi7vo26nlzqoo1iig\/608189_2025_Mark_O_Connell_v_Taking_Back_Sunday_Inc_et_al_COMPLAINT__AMENDED__2.pdf?rlkey=r5hsy94grkhdq7gy6nhb728h5&amp;e=1&amp;st=3bbgs810&amp;dl=0\">here<\/a>. We&#8217;ll continue to update as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O&#8217;Connell appears to be suing his longtime bandmates, according to a newly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,1042,1041,981,50,63119,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-95863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-hardcore","11":"tag-lambgoat","12":"tag-metal","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-taking-back-sunday","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114923388485982194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}