Mugshot - Nice Bird On The Shirt
Singer Howie Day was charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct Friday in connection with an incident involving two women on his tour bus following a performance at the Alliant Energy Center Wednesday.
Day, 23, the opener for Barenaked Ladies, was released from jail after posting $850 bail shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday, about an hour after he was booked. He is scheduled for a court appearance on April 1.
Day, of Brewer, Maine, was scheduled to open again for Barenaked Ladies Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa, but missed that show, according to a review in the Sioux City Journal. His manager was unavailable for comment Friday about the future of the singer's tour.
According to the criminal complaint, town of Madison police were called to Day's tour bus at the Alliant center at about 1:30 a.m. after Day allegedly locked a women in a bathroom on the bus for refusing a sexual advance. He then broke the cell phone of another woman trying to call police.
"That was probably wrong of me," Day reportedly told an officer, referring to breaking the woman's cell phone. "But I felt violated."
According to the complaint:
Day and members of the Howie Day Band invited four or five women onto their tour bus while signing autographs after the show. The group sat around drinking and talking and one of the women went to the back of the bus to use the bathroom. Day followed her in and then tried to kiss her, but she refused his advance.
Day became upset, left the bathroom, slammed the door and then blocked it when she tried to leave. Another woman tried to get Day to let her friend out, then tried to call police on her cell phone. Day allegedly grabbed the phone and broke it in half, then yelled at her to get out.
After the first woman managed to get out of the bathroom, Day allegedly threw beer on them from a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, the complaint says.
Day later admitted grabbing the cell phone as the woman tried to call police and breaking it, but then said he thought it may have already been broken, according to the complaint. He denied throwing beer on the women.
Asked for his version of events, Day told an officer that it is common practice for consenting females to "hang out" and "get together" on the bus after shows. He said there must have been a misunderstanding if the women went to the bus with intentions other than to "hook up or to drink," the complaint states.
He told the officer that when the woman told him "We didn't come here to hook up," he told her, "Then leave."
Day has received critical acclaim with his 2003 album Stop All the World Now. He was scheduled to tour with Barenaked Ladies through March 28, then headline several shows in April.
He is scheduled to open for the Stereophonics the last two weeks in April in Belgium, Germany, Holland, France and Spain.
