Joseph Seiders, the drummer for the indie power-pop group the New Pornographers, was arrested this month in Southern California on charges of possession of child sexual abuse imagery and other crimes, the authorities said.
Mr. Seiders, 44, was taken into custody on April 9 after an employee at a Chick-fil-A restaurant called the police and said a man was entering and exiting the bathroom with underage boys, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
Two days earlier, the police were called to the same restaurant after an 11-year-old boy said a man had recorded him on a cellphone while he used the bathroom.
After Mr. Seiders was arrested, search warrants were issued for his home, vehicle and cellphone, the police said. He was then charged with possession of child pornography, annoying/molesting a child, invasion of privacy and attempted invasion of privacy.
Mr. Seiders, whose bail was set at $1 million and remains incarcerated, is due in court next week, according to jail records. It is unclear if he has a lawyer.
“Everyone in the band is absolutely shocked, horrified and devastated by the news of the charges against Joe Seiders — and we have immediately severed all ties with him,” a spokesman for the New Pornographers said in a statement on Friday. “Our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by his actions.”
The spokesman said there was nothing to report about how the arrest might change the band’s upcoming plans.
Mr. Seiders joined the New Pornographers in 2014 — 17 years after the band formed — and has appeared on recent projects alongside the singer and songwriter Neko Case, the guitarist A.C. Newman and the bassist John Collins. Their latest song, “Ballad of the Last Payphone,” was released this month.
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
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