Introduction

From the outset I would like to state something that should be obvious.

After I began presenting in court my evidence that proved that Grand is knowingly lying about her accusations of criminal sexual acts against me; Grand and her unethical lawyers have since backtracked and changed their narrative. They went from accusing me of criminal accusations, to now stating that Grand was only giving her “opinion” about a consensual sexual relationship. The evidence below will prove that this is false and an attempt to escape accountability.

Even some of Grand’s supporters like journalist Natalie Weiner (who wrote the defamatory May 17, 2021 JazzTimes article) now claim that Grand only gave her “opinion” about a consensual sexual relationship.

I want to make something perfectly clear.

Criminal accusations are not “opinions”! They are inherently harmful statements of fact, that are actionable (i.e., they must be proven true or false).

—

If I travel to Chicago from NYC on Monday, stay for a few days, and return on Thursday, and my friend asks me:

“I heard that you were in Chicago earlier this week, right?”

I don’t then answer:

“In my opinion – I was in Chicago.”

Me being in Chicago is a fact. It’s not an “opinion“. I was either there, or I was not there.

Grand and I were present for every single sexual act that occurred between us. In her accusation Letter(s), Grand is allegedly recalling sexual events that happened between us, over a period of years. It is not her “opinion“, Grand knows if she desired this sex, or if she did not desire it and she was forced.

Grand is trying to escape accountability. She accused me of repeatedly raping her over a period of many years, and distributed those accusations to scores of my musical colleagues, to multiple music journalists, and to concert/festival promoters worldwide, in an obvious attempt to harm my career.

I completely refute these heinous, knowingly false accusations, and I’m prepared to prove it using evidence.

Grand’s lawyers have seen my evidence. They KNOW that Grand is lying, and they KNOW that I can prove that Grand is lying. Therefore they are trying to silence me and make sure that this case never gets to public trial before a jury.

It’s that simple, as I will show. As we already know that many of you will not believe a black man over a white women, I will prove my case using evidence. 

If you notice, Grand and her lawyers have not shown or discussed even one item of the evidence that Grand claimed in her accusation Letter(s) that she supposedly possesses. They have remained silent, except to sprout propaganda and gaslighting. It is amazing and unethical that they still represent Grand, since they have known for years that she is a liar.

Does it look like I am afraid of being sued for defamation (they have uselessly threatened me many times, and already filed one frivolous lawsuit).

I did not sue Grand to silence her. I want her to speak up. I simply want her to speak up with evidence, and to stop gaslighting the music community and relying on her white privilege to demonize me. I want a trial based on evidence to discover the truth, not based on our appearances.

If Grand was telling the truth, she would know it. And if Grand is lying, then she would also know it. Because she was there, she experienced the sex, as did I.

Grand’s lawyers are trying to bullshit the court and bullshit the public.

Grand and I were not high or drunk (I’ve never been high or drunk in my life); we were both fully aware of what we were doing. So Grand’s accusation Letter(s) are Grand recalling what I allegedly did to her, allegedly against her will. Grand’s criminal accusations of forced sex are statements of fact, not “opinions“.

If I forced Grand to engage in unwanted sex, even once, then it is rape. And Grand is accusing me of repeatedly forcing her to engage in unwanted sex for many years, throughout our 5 year 4 month intimate relationship (from exactly June 2, 2011 through September 21, 2016).

What Grand omits in her accusation Letter(s) is that she initiated our first sexual encounter, she initiated our last sexual encounter, and she initiated many sexual encounters in between, in every year of our sexual relationship (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Had Grand revealed these facts, then obviously her victim narrative would’ve been a lot less believable.

Harvard professor Vijay Iyer told me that the courts are not about the truth (like he would know). On May 22, 2018, when Grand pretended like she wanted to mediate me (secretly she was preparing to contact NPR journalist Anastasia Tsioulcas to get her to publish a negative hit piece on me, which Tsioulcas amazingly agreed to consider), Iyer privately told Grand

“Hi. It sounds like a good move, but I don’t know if it’s going to ever satisfy Steve. It’s not justice that he wants— it’s victory.”
Vijay Iyer Subpoena Production page 165

First of all, Iyer is arrogant. He had no idea what I wanted, and he was clueless that Grand was playing him like a violin (even after I told him that she was manipulating him). Grand was lying to Iyer about what had occurred during her May 1, 2018 concert at Roulette in Brooklyn.

Grand got exposed as a liar during her May 17, 2019 deposition (pages 170 to 179) – on page 175 Grand gets caught lying). On page 179 Grand falsely stated that “All three people have given me the same story“, which is an intentional lie. Singer Imani Uzuri actually sent an email to the entire We Have Voice Collective (including Grand), informing them that Grand’s narrative about that night was false. Grand’s constant lying is just ridiculous.

And this deposition was right after Grand lost her frivolous protective order – because I produced an audio recording of me talking to her main witness, again Imani Uzuri, who called me the day after Grand’s concert. My audio recording proved that Grand was lying about being harassed during her May 1 2018 concert. So Grand got exposed lying about the same event twice.

I am interested in exposing the truth, that’s all. If I can clear my name of these criminal accusations, then that is a plus. And this includes exposing Iyer and his minions conspiring with Grand for more than a year to harm my career, while he is pretending to be my ally, and the ally of black musicians. Maybe he was an ally in the past, but as of August 2017 he was secretly working against many of us. And now Iyer refuses to speak up about his clandestine activities. Just like in the Fox News defamation case, discovery is a bitch!

Whether I get so-called “victory” or not, I want to expose what is going on in our creative music community. It’s wrong, it’s definitely biased, and it’s quite possibly racist. And this is not only reflected in what is happening to me.

Iyer is wrong. Being a black man, my best chance of getting to the truth is in a court of law, using evidence, and hopefully getting fair and impartial judges. Yes, this is difficult, but as I have learned, the court of public opinion is far worse, for black men.

And I truly hope Iyer’s brown wannabe ass is never on the receiving end of a false accusation of rape, so that he can be spared from learning this the hard way.

It should be against the law to make a public criminal accusation against someone without evidence. Grand has no evidence because she is knowingly lying.

Grand, her lawyers and those trying to protect her from accountability are trying very hard to muddy the waters and not reveal any of the facts of the relationship to anyone. But the forensic evidence will stand, no matter what happens in court.

This dispute and litigation started with Grand’s multiple knowingly false criminal accusations of forced sex, which are rape accusations; along with one false accusation of kidnapping (with the intent to rape), and one false accusation of sexual assault (i.e., unwanted sexual touching). These are serious federal and state crimes (see the bottom of this webpage).

In their initial court filings, Grand and her lawyers accused me of all of these things. After I began producing forensic evidence that Grand was knowingly lying, Grand’s unethical lawyers began to change the narrative and state that Grand did not really accuse me of any crimes. This type of deceit should not be tolerated.

The original criminal accusations are facts that Grand and her lawyers are trying to hide. If you notice, in their public statements, they make no mentioned any of these forced sex accusations. But they do mention it in court filings. Because in court, where evidence is presented, it’s not a public relations game.

And on this site, I will present the evidence. I will repeat what is largely already a part of the public record.

Grand made heinous criminal accusations against me, and no amount of rewriting of history and people trying to protect her will change this. Here is one knowingly false statement that is alone horrendous and heinous. This is in one version of Grand’s accusation Letter(s), created by Grand and distributed to multiple 3rd parties, where Grand explicitly accused me of raping Grand for 3 years. And if you do not believe that this is a rape accusation (as a few of Grand’s supporters have ridiculously tried to tell me), then imagine exactly this happening to your mother, sister or daughter.

“However in the last three years of my interaction with him I have been sexually harassed and pushed into saying yes to sexual acts I did not want to do.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 102-4 Filed 12/19/19 Page 8 of 9 PageID #: 3182

The last 3 years of my sexual relationship with Grand was exactly October 2013 through September 2016. Grand refers to this exact time period again and again in multiple communications, including in the different versions of her accusation Letter(s). She usually refers to this time period as “after September 2013”, which is the same time period, as our intimate relationship ended in September 2016.

And plenty of evidence proves that Grand is stating that ALL sex that occurred in this 3 year time period was unwanted by her, and obtained by me through sexual harassment and coercion, which is an accusation of 3 years of repeated rape (see Grand’s email to journalist Steve Rowland below).

Rape is a kind of sexual assault that involves someone being forced (via any method, physical, pressure, coercion, extortion, blackmail, threats, bullying, etc.) to engage in unwanted penetrative sex. Grand stated explicitly in multiple communications that she did not desire ANY sex or with me or sexual attention from me after September 2013. Yet Grand and I engaged in plenty of sex (most of it penetrative sex) throughout our approximately 5-year, 4-month intimate relationship (June 2011 through September 2016), including in every year in the October 2013 through September 2016 time period that Grand falsely stated that she did not desire ANY sex with me, and that I was forcing her to engage in unwanted sex.

Grand accused me of raping her for 3 consecutive years, and she distributed these criminal accusations to multiple 3rd parties, including to multiple music journalist, and to multiple concert promoters; proving that her goal was to harm my career (which she unwittingly admitted to in her April 17, 2019 deposition). And this was just the most heinous of multiple criminal sexual acts that Grand has accused me of.

Criminal accusations are actionable statements of fact which need to be proven true or false. Grand’s criminal accusations have nothing to do with Grand’s “opinions”. They have nothing to do with Grand’s “free speech rights”. You simply cannot go around and accuse people of serious criminal sexual acts, without accountability. This is what my ongoing defamation lawsuit is about. It has nothing to do with silencing women. That’s simply gaslighting. Women can lie just like anyone else.

But now, Grand and her lawyers are on a public disinformation campaign to convince people that a rape accusation is somehow not a criminal accusation, when Grand explicitly accused me of repeatedly forcing her to engage in unwanted sex – for years!

Grand describes in her accusation Letter(s) how I accomplished these sex crimes. Grand stated that I engaged in what amounts to extortion – accusing me of forcing her to pay for music lessons with unwanted sex; and accusing me of not hiring her for gigs until after she engaged in unwanted sex with me (or accusing me of firing her from gigs when she did not agree to have unwanted sex with me).

“Whenever he offered me more work, he would wait until I actually slept with him to solidify the dates.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 5 of 8 PageID #: 2085

“On tour I would have to sleep with him at the end of the day lest him be absolutely angry and sometimes refuse to rehearse the band the next day.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 5 of 8 PageID #: 2085

“Indeed when I stopped agreeing to sleep with him he stopped granting me access to his knowledge, and he made my professional life with him a complete nightmare.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 8 PageID #: 2084

“As long as I kept having sex with him, he would teach me. I figured at that time that this was the only way I was going to be able to learn. I practiced like crazy. I was learning a whole bunch and I had no money, so there would’ve been no way for me to pay him for all these lessons.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 8 PageID #: 2084

It is against the law to extort unwanted sex from anyone. This is called RAPE. These criminal accusations can all easily be proven to be false. No matter what Grand and her lawyers say publicly, it can be proven that Grand knows that she is lying, and that her lawyers also know that she is lying. No one could sit through Grand’s disastrous April 17, 2019 deposition, and not realize that Grand is not telling the truth. The evidence demonstrates that Grand was constantly lying under oath.

There are many individuals within our creative music community who know that Grand is lying, including about specific accusations of forced sex and other abuse. There is written forensic evidence for everything that I am saying here. Here are just a few examples:

Harvard professor and pianist Vijay Iyer now knows that many of the accusations that Grand told him are lies. Grand lied to Iyer in order to get him to conspire with her to harm my career, which worked. Iyer is understandably afraid to speak on this now, but he will not be able to ignore this scandal.

I have told Iyer that he needs to publicly reveal his role in conspiring with Grand to harm my career, and to also address the damaging racist statement that he made about me and 3 other black male musicians.

We are at a tipping point in this country, a kind of reconstruction, where black men are under assault. The conspiracies of Grand, Iyer and many other non-black individuals within our creative music community need to be exposed. If either Iyer of Grand believe that they are being wrongly portrayed, then either of them needs to speak up and address their actions openly and transparently. Iyer has remained silent on this for over 5 years, which speaks volumes.

Saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, Grand’s previous boyfriend, also knows that Grand is lying about not wanting to sleep with me. Pennicott begged Grand not to begin a sexual relationship with me, and Grand told him that he could not control her, and that she wanted to have a sexual relationship with me. These written communications are a part of the public court record, and this alone proves that Grand’s victim narrative is knowingly false.

There is still a concerted PR campaign to misrepresent what is happening within our creative music community. I am sorry for any embarrassment that this will cause 3rd parties, however these same 3rd parties refuse to come forward publicly and reveal their roles in helping Maria Grand to harm my career.

As I stated in my original lawsuit (which is still pending), Maria Grand is making criminal accusations against me.

This action is brought by Plaintiff to recover, inter alia, damages caused by Defendant’s libelous communication of knowingly false statements in numerous emails to the parties’ professional colleagues, friends, and close associates. Upon information and belief, Defendant attached a defamatory letter (the “Letter”) to the aforementioned emails, which contained numerous false statements alleging criminal sexual acts and sexual harassment on the part of Plaintiff.
Case 1:18-cv-05663   Document 1   Filed 10/10/18
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM   Document 22   Filed 03/08/19

The individuals in our creative music community who support Grand do not understand what this dispute is about and how serious it is, because Grand and her lawyers went on a PR campaign to obscure the truth. These individuals also are not aware how dangerous it is (both historically and today) for a white woman to falsely accuse a black man of rape. This is especially dangerous for our creative music community, and I cannot recall something like this occurring on this scale. 

The other aspects that I will expose are the deep biases (explicit and implicit) that exist within our creative music community. Musicians, journalists, concert promoters; we are just people – subject to the same human nature as others. Many individuals support Grand simply because of her physical appearance, versus my physical appearance. There is zero evidence involved in what they believe.

I am not guilty of rape or any other crime because of my age, gender, ethnicity, philosophy, my status, my so-called “power”, my musical experience – or any other metric, other than evidence and/or a proven history of abuse. But individuals who are biased don’t understand this. They believe that if Grand accuses Warren Buffet of rape, then Buffet is automatically guilty because he is older, has more money, status and/or perceived power. That’s not the way it works. Individuals should be judged guilty of a crime because there is evidence of them committing that crime.

Bias does not use logic, it is based on prejudice and emotion. I am guilty because I “look” guilty, and there is no other reason. People who are spreading false accusations and rumors about me don’t have a shred of evidence. If you do, I welcome the discussion, along with the evidence.

But as I told Harvard professor and pianist Vijay Iyer and pianist Aaron Parks (two of Grand’s earliest supporters who conspired with Grand to cause a lot of harm to my career), I knew that neither Iyer or Parks had ANY evidence of me forcing Grand to engage in unwanted sex, because Grand herself does not have any evidence. Therefore their previous belief in Grand’s forced sex narrative was based on bias, not on evidence (Parks has since apologized to me, but he needs to apologize publicly).

Neither musician gave me a logical reason why they believed Grand – and the evidence demonstrates that they definitely believed her. If they didn’t believe her, then that would make their actions in helping Grand to harm me far worse.

Furthermore, Iyer made racist statements against me and 3 other black male musicians. Although Iyer denies it, everyone whom I’ve shown Iyer’s statement to believes that the statement is racist. I told Iyer that if he really believes that his statement is not racist, then he should come forward and publicly defend what he said. Iyer has so far refused and has blocked me from all of his social media. Now that I’m calling him out, he will need to address the following biased statement.

“Let me add, immediately, that I am not casting doubt on any of the accusers who have courageously come forward in our music scene, publicly or privately, whether using their names or remaining anonymous. It is true that many of the accused are Black men, and many of the accusers are white women; but I want to be clear that I believe every one of the accusers.”

The black men whom Iyer demonstrated implicit bias towards are Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Steve Kirby, Aruan Ortiz (directly confirmed to me by Iyer in a 6-hour recorded June 22, 2020 conversation). To my knowledge, Osby and Kirby have both won their lawsuits against their accusers. And I know for a fact that Grand is lying. 

Iyer has not given me a ‘logical’ reason why the “many” black men (i.e., me, Osby, Kirby and Ortiz) should be considered guilty, and the “many” white women who accused us are to be believed. If Iyer meant to use a different word than “believe”, then he should’ve chosen that word. I know what the word “believe” means. And I also know for a fact that, in my own situation, that Iyer did “believe” Grand. Otherwise to support Grand, and not be sure that she is telling the truth, is infinitely worse than believing her and supporting her. Because Grand’s criminal accusations are horrendous and inherently harmful, and you don’t support someone who is making these criminal accusations unless you really believe them (many people in our creative music community chose to stay clear of Grand and her accusations of rape).

The problem for Iyer and others, is that they acted to conspire with Grand to harm me, when they had no evidentiary reason to believe Grand. They simply believed her based on physical appearances. I have repeatedly asked Grand’s supporters why they believed her, and I have not received even one logical response that is not based on bias.

Here is Iyer’s complete Letter to the We Have Voice Collective (biased statement is on page 2), so that Iyer cannot claim that I took his paragraph out of context.

When I sued Grand, all I had to worry about was fabricated evidence and possibly the biased justice system. I did not have to worry about real evidence.

No one, including Grand, has presented ANY evidence that I forced Grand to engage in unwanted sex with me. On the contrary, I have presented a plethora of evidence that Grand is lying. Yet these biased individuals believe Grand, simply based on her word and physical appearance. This is the very definition of bias

Grand has a very long history of making exactly these kinds of false accusations, going back to at least 2011, which I have detailed at the end of this document.
(see: “More Evidence of conspiracies to harm my career”)

Grand knows that she is lying, and her lawyers have long known that Grand is lying (at least since 2019).  

However neither Grand or her lawyers will admit that Grand is lying. It has been years since Grand began distributing her false criminal accusation of forced sex in November 2017 (the written versions), and Grand has shown zero remorse for what she did. She has not retracted even one false statements, even when proven false during her sworn deposition.

Grand admitted in her deposition that she was stalking me, pursing me, and trying to  have sex with me after Sep 2013, which makes her criminal accusation Letter(s) defamation.

Grand had no choice but to admit this because the evidence of our contemporaneous communications is overwhelming. In her April 17, 2019 deposition, pages 112 through 117; when faced with evidence, Grand breaks down and confesses that she was in love with me, wanted to marry me, was stalking me, and was still pursuing me.

This is in complete contradiction to what she stated in her accusation Letter(s), and in private communications; where Grand stated that she wanted nothing to do with me romantically and sexually after Se 2013.

But Grand and her lawyers WILL NOT confess to this in public. They simply pretend as if Grand is a victim. If anything, Grand originally doubled down on her accusations of forced unwanted sex, but now states that she never accused me of anything criminal. A complete 180 degree shift.

Grand and her lawyers are relying on the famous American short attention span, knowing that most individuals will just believe what they want to hear, and will do very little digging.

When I began to produce my evidence in discovery, that’s when Grand and her lawyers began to shift their narrative and tactics, incredibly claiming that Grand was only giving her “opinion”, was exercising her “free speech rights”, and that she was not accusing me of any crime! This is only because legally, it is both more difficult to dismiss my lawsuit, and easier for me to prove damages, if Grand is making criminal accusations.

Criminal accusations are serious and are inherently harmful. It only takes one criminal accusation to damage anyone – and Grand has made many. Here is just one serious example, created by Grand (not by me), and distributed by Grand to multiple 3rd parties.

“However in the last three years of my interaction with him I have been sexually harassed and pushed into saying yes to sexual acts I did not want to do.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 102-4 Filed 12/19/19 Page 8 of 9 PageID #: 3182.

The last 3 years of the sexual relationship between me and Grand is exactly October 2013 through September 2016. In multiple communications, Grand constantly refers to this time span as “the last three years”, or refers to this same period as “after September 2013”. Both phrases refer to the exact same 3 year period of time.

The “him” is Steve Coleman. It has already been proven beyond a doubt that Grand’s accusations are directed at me. Grand identifies me by name in multiple documents to multiple 3rd parties, and my identity is thinly veiled, when veiled at all.

As any non-biased person can see, this is a direct unambiguous accusation by Grand, that I continually forced her to engage in unwanted sexual acts, which is a criminal accusation. It is a crime to force anyone, via any method, to engage in unwanted sex. PERIOD. 

This is exactly what I stated in the first paragraph of my lawsuit, that the communications that Grand distributed to multiple 3rd parties “..contained numerous false statements alleging criminal sexual acts…” against me. I even use the same words, “sexual acts” that Grand uses. And of course, unwanted “sexual acts” are criminal.

Maria Grand’s main Criminal Accusation is that I used my position as an informal mentor/teacher and bandleader/employer to extort unwanted sex from her, over a minimum 3 year period of time. 

As Grand has refused to retract her harmful false accusations, I will continue to clear my name.

There are many other false criminal accusations that Grand created and distributed to 3rd parties, which I will detail in my evidence. Grand has made multiple false rape accusations against me – falsely accusing me of forcing her to engage in unwanted sex in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016; falsely accusing me of kidnapping her in late July 2011; falsely accusing me of sexually assaulting her in early June 2016 (i.e., unwanted sexual touching); and making a ridiculous false accusation that I physically assaulted my ex-wife, the great pianist Geri Allen in the late 1980s (ridiculous because Grand was not even born yet). 

ALL of these are criminal accusations. And only one criminal accusation would be extremely serious. 

Grand also demonized by falsely stating that she was not romantically and physically attracted to me when we met (she was), and falsely accusing me of grooming her. This is rich, considering that Grand was chasing me. In reality, Grand planned the entire intimate sexual relationship, telling me in writing that she desired an intimate relationship from the first year that she met me, and that I fell into her trap.  

I cannot let these knowingly false accusations stand unchallenged.

The problem for Grand is that it is simple to prove that she is lying.

In making her criminal accusations of rape, Grand stated in multiple communications, including in her accusation Letter(s), that she did not desire ANY sex with me in the 3 years following September 2013, and that all sex that occurred in this time period was unwanted by Grand, and forced by me.

I can prove that ALL of Grand’s other accusations of forced sex are false (for example, Grand’s false accusations of rape in 2011), but if Grand can lie about this entire 3 consecutive years of continuous rape (i.e., October 2013 through September 2016), which is the majority of our 5-year, 4-month sexual relationship, and not retract even one accusation; then the veracity of her entire narrative has to be questioned.

I have in my possession a plethora of contemporaneous communications between me and Grand, which occur throughout this same 3 year time period and more, where Grand is constantly propositioning me for sex, unsolicited. These communications, most of which are on the public court docket, show Grand, of her own volition, requesting sex from me, often telling me exactly which sexual acts she wants me to perform on her, and they reveal both of our reactions after the sex has occurred.

Grand has not mentioned ANY of her constant propositioning me for sex in her Letter(s) and/or communications with 3rd parties. Particularly after September 2013, there is not a hint that Grand desired and consented to sex with me, free of accusations of pressure, coercion, extortion, bullying, and/or threats. 

None of these contemporaneous communications show the heinous acts that Grand is describing in her accusation Letter(s), of Grand not desiring sex with me after September 2013, or me forcing Grand to engage in unwanted sex with me, of me refusing to teach Grand, refusing to hire Grand or firing Grand because she would not engage in unwanted sex with me.

“However in the last three years of my interaction with him I have been sexually harassed and pushed into saying yes to sexual acts I did not want to do.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 102-4 Filed 12/19/19 Page 8 of 9 PageID #: 3182

(The last 3 years of the sexual relationship between Grand and Coleman is exactly October 2013 through September 2016. Grand constantly refers to this date either as “the last 3 years” or “after September 2013. This is a rape accusation).

“In September 2013 he broke up with me…. By that point, though, I wasn’t in love with him anymore. I didn’t want to be intimate with him anymore. That period is when the sexual harassment started.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4-5 of 8 PageID #: 2084-2085

Sep 16, 2017 Email from Grand to journalist Steve Rowland, where Grand states that she did not desire ANY intimate contact with me after Sep 2013, and that ALL sexual contact between us after that date was obtained by me through coercion, which is rape:

“I only entered (and even had the thought of entering) a relationship with Steve Coleman because he was so insistent. It was not my idea. I didn’t go into lessons with him thinking he was attractive. I went into lessons with him thinking he was great and being drawn to his knowledge and musicianship – not trying to have a relationship with him.

I never propositioned him nor would have wanted to. He’s the one who insisted. He insisted for two years before I said yes to anything. It was not a decision I made out of happiness, it was a decision I made because I felt I had no choice. My resistance was broken down little by little. He held knowledge as a dangling carrot in front of me and made me feel that I had no choice but sleep with him in order to become a good musician.

I hope my letter makes that clear… I never wanted to be in a relationship with someone that much older than me. It wasn’t something I was craving. But once I became intimate with him all the lines blurred and I felt that I needed him, and I fell for him. I wish I hadn’t, I wish I had more courage, more support, more options, and didn’t go through that. Anyways, after I started resisting his advances, it was only harassment and coercion. I want to stress that again. After September 2013, all I was is harassed. It’s a long time to be harassed. I made it clear many times that I wanted him to stop propositioning me, and he didn’t care. I’m highly annoyed that this was not more clear in my letter and that you felt the need to stress that relationships should be kept out of work. This isn’t about relationships. It’s about abuse and harassment…”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 92-4 Filed 11/22/19 Page 2 of 81 PageID #: 2738

The contemporaneous communications between me and Grand show the opposite; that sometimes Grand attempted to use sex to manipulate me (Grand was the only party who proposed an explicit quid pro quo exchange of sex for musical lessons/favors), and that Grand was constantly propositioning me for sex, including throughout the 3 years following September 2013.  

I have presented evidence of Grand’s communications with me after the September 2013, the date after which she claims that she did not desire sex with me and that ALL sex between us was forced.

In these communications, Grand is constantly expressing her love for me and her desire to marry me:

“Yea, I already told you, I wanted to be with you.” – Oct 2013; 

“Ok. I would love to be married to you, but unfortunately I am sure it will not happen.” – Dec 2013; 

“I’m in love with you, it just is what it is.” – Dec 2013); 

Grand is clearly requesting penetrative sex:

“I’m too horny. I’m going to cum before you get here. Then you can come in and sink inside me” – Feb 2014; 

Grand is unconcerned about the age difference between us:

Coleman: “I’ll be 60 in two years, so you made the right choice! Got out before it was too sof… errr, I mean late.”, 

Grand: “Hahahahahahahaha! Your tongue still works. That’s all I need anyways“ – Sep 2014; 

Grand continuously propositioning me for sex, well within the 3 year time period “after September 2013” that Grand claimed that she did not desire ANY sex with me, and that Grand claims that I began raping her for 3 consecutive years: 

“…I really am just horny. Not expecting anything. But I could use a licking…” – Sep 2015;

“But I guess I’ll let you go down on me in LA. You do it so well.” – Nov 2015;

—

And a few weeks later in Los Angeles:

Coleman: “Judging by how hard u came when u exploded all over my face, I assume u enjoyed yourself. A very wet experience.” 

Grand: “Twas nice” – Dec 2015, in Los Angeles;

There is much, much more.

If Grand did not desire ANY sexual encounters with me after Sep 2013, and if Grand was being repeatedly raped during this exact same time period, as she falsely claimed – then why would Grand be telling me that she wants to be with me, requesting sex from me, telling me which sexual acts she wants me to perform on her, joking about my age, and telling me that she enjoyed me satisfying her?

Although Grand’s lawyers have repeatedly avoided addressing this glaring contradiction, and Grand’s supporters would rather not address this, the answer is obvious.

Grand is CLEARLY LYING.

This was pointed out by an appellate justice in the May 13, 2022 Oral Arguments, and Grand’s lawyer was forced to lie in order to reply:

Appellate Justice #1  35:14 
Are you saying that we have these text messages and so on that show him, her, pursuing him or behaving in a way that somebody wouldn’t behave if the account that she gave was right. That is some evidence supporting his position. Maybe it could be argued the other way. But doesn’t that mean, it’s possible to, for a reasonable jury to reach the other conclusion?

Mark Bailen  35:32 
not in this case, because in this case, what she let what she wrote in her piece was she acknowledged the fact that she was pursuing him at times she acknowledged the fact that she fell in love with him. So the fact that,

Appellate Justice #2  35:43 
She acknowledges the fact that she was manipulative, right?

Bailen  35:46 
And she, she acknowledges the fact that she too, was manipulative. He was manipulative on his side, and she was manipulative on her side, essentially, there was a quid pro quo going on here, where they both had different views of what the quid pro quo was. And so that’s, and that’s fine.That’s, she’s expressing her views of this. And then he expressed his views in his letter. And that’s what, that’s what the First Amendment is all about.

Grand’s lawyer is not being truthful. There is not one place in ANY of Grand’s multiple accusations Letter(s), especially after Sep 2013, where Grand states that she is pursuing me for sex, or that she desires sex from me. Grand stating that she may have been in love is NOT the same thing. I didn’t sue Grand for her feelings. I sued her because she is lying that I forced her to engage in unwanted sex!

Every sexual encounter that Grand mentions is described as me pressuring or coercing Grand against her desires, including Grand’s description of our very first sexual encounter, on June 2, 2011.

Grand’s November 2017 accusation Letter(s):
About 6 months after I moved to New York in 2011, he convinced me to be intimate with him. I would always end up doing what he wanted after he’d pressure me enough”…
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 8 PageID #: 2084

Pressured sex is not consensual sex. All legal sex must be desired by all parties involved, AND consented to by all parties involved.

The first time I read this, I knew that Grand was doing some Emmitt Till shit. But just in case you doubt that Grand is discussing coerced, unwanted sex in her description, here is Grand’s sworn statement under oath during discovery, referring to this exact same first sexual encounter:

Interrogatories response of April 22, 2019, researched and prepared by Grand and her lawyers:
“In June 2011, during Parties’ first sexual encounter, Mr. Coleman put immense pressure on Defendant at every step, persuading and pushing her until she acquiesced. The moment Defendant did not comply, Mr. Coleman became enraged, retreated to his room, shut the door behind him, and refused to speak to Defendant until she did what he wished. Defendant did not feel that this encounter was in any way consensual.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-11 Filed 10/24/19 Page 12 of 31 PageID #: 2287
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 90-1 Filed 10/28/19 Page 12 of 31 PageID #: 2654

This is proof that in Grand’s description of our first sexual encounter, she is stating that I raped her. Grand stated that the sex was the result of immense pressure, and that it was non-consensual.

Does this look like consensual sex to you? If this happened to your sister or daughter, would this be OK?

Grand’s lawyers helped her to prepare this sworn statement. But this was before I started presenting my evidence, and the oral arguments are after.

Grand and her lawyers are trying to gaslight both the court and the public, and pretend like Grand never made any criminal accusations against me, she was just giving her “opinions“. 

That IS NOT a description of a consensual sex, as Grand’s lawyers are now trying to state.

Now given the discrepancy between Grand’s demonizing description, and the fact that it was Grand who pursued me an initiated this sex in the first place (easily proven with evidence), then it’s clear that Grand is intentionally lying about a serious rape accusation, in order to harm me and my career.

In fact, it was Grand who initiated the first sexual encounter between us on June 2, 2011 (Grand’s then boyfriend, saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, begged Grand not to enter into an intimate relationship with me, and Grand told him that he could not control her and tell her what to do. Grand stated in multiple communications that she was doing what she wanted to do, and she told Pennicott that she wanted to enter into a sexual relationship with me); and it was Grand who initiated the last sexual encounter between us, on September 21, 2016 (Grand offered herself to me as a sexual birthday present, despite having a boyfriend, pianist James Francies, whom Grand lived with at that time) – and Grand initiated many sexual encounters in between.

All of this is contrary to the lies that Grand wrote, and there is not a hint in Grand’s false criminal accusation Letter(s) – of Grand continuously propositioning me for sex in the

Grand distributed her knowingly false criminal accusations to multiple 3rd parties, including journalists, in an obvious effort to harm me and my career.

One version of Grand’s false accusation Letter(s) that was sent to multiple music journalists contained the following knowingly false statement intended to demonize me:

“I realized then that I was attracted to him, but not in a physical way. I was looking for a teacher in him and not a lover, and I felt strong attraction to who he was and what he could do. But I was not craving an intimate affair with him.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 3 of 8 PageID #: 2083

This is knowingly false. Grand was sexually and romantically attracted to me from the time that we met, and she has admitted this in multiple written communications to me, to my wife, and to her then boyfriend saxophonist Tivon Pennicott. 

Grand wrote other intentionally false demonizing statements in order to harm my career, to set up her later more explicitly criminal accusations of forced sex – like the following:

“He also made it clear, though, that “hanging out”, in my case and in the case of other young women, meant having sex with whoever you were hanging out with. You couldn’t just say no, because if you did you were uptight and then nobody wanted to hang out with you.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 3 of 8 PageID #: 2083

“Indeed when I stopped agreeing to sleep with him he stopped granting me access to his knowledge, and he made my professional life with him a complete nightmare.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 8 PageID #: 2084

“As long as I kept having sex with him, he would teach me. I figured at that time that this was the only way I was going to be able to learn. I practiced like crazy. I was learning a whole bunch and I had no money, so there would’ve been no way for me to pay him for all these lessons.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 87-1 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 8 PageID #: 2084

These statements are all knowingly false, and the last two statements are criminal accusations, because Grand and I were having consensual sex throughout this time period. Grand is stating that she was forced to engage in unwanted sex in order to pay for music lessons, and it is a crime to extort unwanted sex from anyone (i.e., a “complete nightmare” is obviously not sex that Grand desired).

The only party who ever attempted to propose an explicit quid pro quo offer to exchange sex for music lessons/favors was Grand, and I rejected her offer. Grand got caught in a perjury trap during her deposition lying about her quid pro quo offer (Grand tried to blame it on me by stating that I somehow put the offer in her mind and made her proposition me). Separately, Grand also confessed to saxophonist Antoine Roney that it was her idea to try to use her body to get musical information from me, but that I rejected her offer. I was not a party to Grand’s communication with Roney.

For those of you who keep asking why Grand would lie about such an horrendous accusation (as if white women are incapable of lying), you will have to ask Grand this, as only she knows for sure. 

Based on the evidence, based on the experience of being there, and based on knowing Grand – I believe that Grand acted out of being hurt from being rejected, and out of revenge. Some of you may find this hard to believe, but Grand wanted me to leave my wife and marry her, for multiple reasons (love, sex, obtaining papers to live and work in the United States, access to all of my research, etc.), and Grand wanted to be a permanent member of my ensemble Five Elements. When I rejected Grand’s desires, her love grew into hate, and she worked to ruin my career to get revenge.

On July 9, 2016, Grand wrote a diary email to herself, almost 3 years after the date that she falsely told multiple 3rd parties that she did not desire ANY sex with me: 

“That’s what happened with Steve, but I had decided that I was going to belong with him. Alas, he decided I wasn’t enough to belong with him. And so he abandoned me/pushed me out/excluded me, which is one of the things that hurt me the most.”

“And that’s what happens also when James gets together with his friends. I’m always excluded from that. And it hurts so much. That’s what hurts when I’m around him in business situations I’m not a part of; I’m excluded. When I’m excluded my typical pattern is to withdraw and be depressed. And to cry and also be angry. That’s the other one; create a scene in hopes of getting more attention.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-9 Filed 10/24/19 Page 10 of 28 PageID #: 1699
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 102 Filed 12/19/19 Page 4 of 12 PageID #: 3162

The “Steve” is Steve Coleman, and the “James” is pianist “James Francies, who was Grand’s current boyfriend in July 2016.

Notice that Grand states that her typical pattern is to “cry”, “be angry”, and to “create a scene in hopes of getting more attention”. These are Grand’s words. In an earlier communication, Grand told me something very similar. After confessing that she had always wanted to be intimate with me (which proves that her accusation Letter(s) are a LIE, when she stated that she was not sexually attracted to me when we met), Grand admits that she is manipulative and that “I’ve pulled you back many times – just in order to obtain what I wanted. Which is why I acted up as soon as I got the thing I was looking for.”

On 9/27/11, 2:54 PM, “Maria kim Grand” <email redacted> wrote:

I love these bus rides, because I can always think and check out stuff.

I would love to go with you meet Sonny Rollins. I understand if you don’t wanna take me there. But it’s a burning desire, I have to say.

It’s funny because I feel melancholic now that I told you I don’t wanna have sex anymore. Actually, I’ve always wanted some kind of intimacy with you, even though I like to think that you got me into it.

As you know, I’m also a calculative person, and I’ve pulled you back many times – just in order to obtain what I wanted. Which is why I acted up as soon as I got the thing I was looking for.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 360 of 422 PageID #: 1150 (exhibit 24)
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 147-151 of 422 PageID #: 937-941
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-12 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 29 PageID #: 1864

Grand later again confesses to me that she has was attracted to me from the time that we met, that she planned the entire intimate relationship, and that I fell into her trap.

mbase1235 2/14/2012 9:40:39 PM Maybe I should have never given you even that first music lesson.

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:40:55 PM yea, cause you fell in the trap.

mbase1235 2/14/2012 9:41:14 PM So, it was a trap all along?

mbase1235 2/14/2012 9:41:33 PM And I thought you actually loved me! You see, everyone lies.

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:41:39 PM i’ve been thinking about that a lot these days

mbase1235 2/14/2012 9:41:49 PM About what exactly?

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:42:33 PM about a lot of things. but i was really attracted to you from the beginning, and i went back to read some early emails that i sent you, and it was very clear that that’s where i wanted to go.

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:43:52 PM then i realised that this relationship really is killing for me, because not only am I learning so much, but I feel like it’s rare to be able to express one’s self like this, I can express my freakdom and all that.

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:45:19 PM and really the only problem i had was you being married, and the people’s judgement. i was able to solve the people’s judgement, and i don’t mind you being married

Maria Grand 2/14/2012 9:45:37 PM so i came to the conclusion that you should lock me up in your basement.
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 274 of 422 PageID #: 1064 (exhibit 1)
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 35-40 of 422 PageID #: 825-830
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 35-1 Filed 04/05/19 Page 27 of 152 PageID #: 414

And on Sep 27, 2011 Grand in an email to my me:
Grand: “Actually, I’ve always wanted some kind of intimacy with you, even though I like to think that you got me into it”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 360 of 422 PageID #: 1150 (exhibit 24)
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 147-151 of 422 PageID #: 937-941
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-12 Filed 10/24/19 Page 4 of 29 PageID #: 1864

And on Apr 14, 2012 Grand in an email to my wife:
Grand: “Now at some point he met me and was attracted, and so was I.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 35-1 Filed 04/05/19 Page 34 of 152 PageID #: 421

The racial dynamic makes Grand’s accusations of rape far worse, and go a long way in explaining the outrage over Grand accusations by many non-black individuals within our creative music community. I know that some of you will think “oh, here is the race card again”, but look at the evidence first.

Grand and Iyer conspired to form a secret 25-member group that met through secret email chains and discussed blackballing me and destroying my career. This is one of the biggest conspiracies in this dispute, suggested by Iyer, but fully authorized by Grand.

This group was diverse, with about a third being black individuals. However, ALL of the individuals who either discussed or acted with Grand to harm me were non-black.

What are the chances of this? I later asked Iyer why did he think this was, and he had absolutely no answer for me, only deflecting and making a remark about Matthew Garrison, but not telling me what Garrison said.

But I READ the communications, so I know exactly who was discussing removing me from the music scene, and it was not anyone who was black.

I would’ve never known about this secret group had it not been for several whistleblowers. The individuals in this group who were subpoenaed suppressed these communications (Vijay Iyer, Maria Grand, Jen Shyu, Rajna Swaminathan, Okkyung Lee, Michelle Mercer) – which is no surprised, since they discussed and planned to keep it secret. And with good reason, since they were conspiring to harm me.

Others in this group who either discussed harming my career, or who acted to harm my career were Dan Weiss, Stephan Crump, Aaron Parks and Rob Saffer.

Not one black person in this group discussed harming my career. 

Coincidence? I think not.

Even so called liberals can have implicit biases, and not realize it.

The United States has a long history of false accusations of rape triggering non-black individuals. As I told Vijay Iyer; some examples of the results of white women making false accusations of black men are the Tulsa race massacre, the Rosewood massacre, the Scottsboro Boys, Emmitt Till, etc. The rash of recent “Karen” accusations is a continuation of this dynamic.

Grand unfortunately will go down as another one of these examples. In fact, due to the seriousness of her false accusations, she may be the “Karen” of all “Karens”.

It’s not pretty, but research has revealed that the top reasons for false accusations of rape are: Revenge, Monetary Gain, Alibis, Attention Seeking, Mental Illness, to Attract Attention.

From the this website:

Criminal justice and sexual violence authorities generally classify false allegation cases into 2 broad categories:

1. allegations accusations arising from false memories.
2. False allegation cases stemming from a person making intentionally inaccurate allegations.

Grand’s false accusations are not as a result of false memories. Grand knows that she is lying. Grand’s multiple attempts to cover up her lies proves this. Grand has conspired with multiple 3rd parties to harm my career, she has repeatedly lied under oath in court, and she has illegally suppressed hundreds of relevant communications with 3rd parties.

As two examples of many, Harvard professor Vijay Iyer submitted 212 pages of communications between him and Grand which Grand suppressed. Bassist Anthony Tidd submitted 51 pages of communications between him and Grand which Grand suppressed. People hide evidence when they are lying.

From the this website:

Intentionally false reporting of rape and sexual assault allegations

In a majority of false allegation cases, a person intentionally lies about being the victim of rape or sexual assault. Not only do they falsely claim to have been victimized, they may go so far as to file a police report. This false report can then progress further to the criminal prosecution of an innocent person in a sexual assault or rape case.

Though unthinkable, there exist a myriad of reasons why a person might falsely report a rape or sexual assault. Some of the more common of ulterior motivations we encounter include (edit: the highlighted apply to Grand):

• Revenge *
• Material (monetary) gain
• To create an alibi
• To express regret *
• To generate sympathy *
• To draw attention *
• To express anger *
• To deny a consensual sexual encounter *
• Mental instability
• To gain leverage in a custody or divorce proceeding

Intentional misstatements accusing an innocent person of rape or sexual assault can result in both civil and criminal penalties. A person who was falsely accused can pursue a false allegations lawsuit. If a person files a police report containing an intentionally false accusation of rape or sexual assault, that individual can be charged with a crime as well. Law enforcement and prosecutors don’t take kindly to false criminal reports since it wastes their time and resources.

From the this website:

During some internal communications with the We Have Voice Collective that were revealed during discover (similar to the Dominion v FOX News defamation litigation), bassist Linda Oh did some research on false accusations against black men. Oh tried to encourage the other women in the group to respond to my mediation requests, stating that they would be seen as being hypocritical if they did not respond. But Oh got voted down, and WHV never responded to me as a group.

What Oh did not know was that there were some snakes in the grass. Many of the women had already been involved in conspiring with Grand to harm my career. At some point the following women either discussed or took steps to harm me:

Maria Grand
Okkyung Lee
Rajna Swaminathan
Jen Shyu
Ganavya Doraiswamy

They all conspired with Grand in some way, some more than others. Some of these women like Grand, Lee and Swaminathan plotted or acted in extreme ways to harm me. Obviously they had no desire to dialog with me. What if it turned out that Grand was lying? What would that do to their Collective?

Well, the WHV Collective is not functioning today, precisely because of Grand’s lies, her criminal accusations, and her malicious conspiracies with others. Little by little, women realized that Grand was not telling the truth. Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa even ran to start another women’s group, to get away from the taint of We Have Voice.

WHV is now permanently a part of the federal civil court record, all because they refused to act to rein in bad behavior from bad actors. Some in WHV suspected that Grand was lying (they told me).

But they remained silent publicly, which further enabled Grand, just like their own Code of Conduct predicted.

SPEAK UP, SEEK SUPPORT, OR ASK FOR HELP when witnessing, experiencing, or suspecting any form of harassment. Your silence may enable an abusive situation.

None of the women spoke up, they handled Grand with kid gloves and tried to bury their heads in the sand. This enabled Grand to go out of control and get worse and worse.

Once Grand received legal help from the Times Up Legal Defense Fund (which apparently does not vet those who claim that they have been abused), she felt invincible and really got out of control. Grand’s lawyers effectively muted any chance of mediation. Yes, they pretended to mediate, but Grand was secretly attacking me while we were supposed to be mediating, so that was obviously fake.

One of Grand’s attacks was the resulted in the May 17, 2021 JazzTimes article that spent 500 words falsely describing this dispute. It was obvious that there was no attempt to be fair.

The unethical and biased journalist Natalie Weiner made no attempt to contact me before or after she published her libelous hit job. Even after I contacted her, she refused to respond. So I contacted the previous editor, Mac Randall. Same result, I was told that they JazzTimes would stand by Weiner’s statements, even after I sent evidence proving that what Weiner said was false.

What ethical journalists only contacts one party in a dispute, and ignores the other party, not even trying to contact me?

And Grand will try to claim that she has nothing to do with this, but that’s bullshit. She could’ve stopped it, she knew that it was harmful (that was the entire reason why I was suing her), and both Grand and her publicist Matt Merewitz promoted the issue after it came out, which increased the harm caused.

Grand and her lawyers have been attacking me every since, planting articles in newspapers, organizing Amici Briefs, and lying in court, in public and before federal justices about the facts of this case.

But the previous WHV women will STILL not speak up publicly, though a few have talked to me privately. So this is bound to occur again.

It reminds me so much of the Trump situation, where Republicans remain silent and enable him.

In a majority of false allegation cases, a person intentionally lies about being the victim of rape or sexual assault. Not only do they falsely claim to have been victimized, they may go so far as to file a police report. This false report can then progress further to the criminal prosecution of an innocent person in a sexual assault or rape case.

Though unthinkable, there exist a myriad of reasons why a person might falsely report a rape or sexual assault. Some of the more common of ulterior motivations we encounter include (edit: the highlighted apply to Grand):

• Revenge *
• Material (monetary) gain
• To create an alibi
• To express regret *
• To generate sympathy *
• To draw attention *
• To express anger *
• To deny a consensual sexual encounter *
• Mental instability
• To gain leverage in a custody or divorce proceeding

Intentional misstatements accusing an innocent person of rape or sexual assault can result in both civil and criminal penalties. A person who was falsely accused can pursue a false allegations lawsuit. If a person files a police report containing an intentionally false accusation of rape or sexual assault, that individual can be charged with a crime as well. Law enforcement and prosecutors don’t take kindly to false criminal reports since it wastes their time and resources.

Pianist Aaron Parks told me only recently (Nov 2022) that he did some independent research, and realized that Grand’s narrative did not hold up. But why couldn’t Parks have done this back in 2017, when he blindly decided to conspire with Grand to harm me, and helped her edit her criminal accusation Letter(s), based on nothing more than her word and her appearance?

(Grand lied about this under oath in her April 17, 2019 deposition, on page 74. Grand stated that no one helped her, and she did not mention Parks’ name).

In Nov 2017, Grand identified me by name when she falsely told Parks that I had repeatedly forced her to engage in unwanted sex. Yet Parks did not vet Grand and helped her anyway, without evidence. Only after I confronted Parks in Jan/Feb 2021 did Parks do some minimal research to see if Grand was lying.

Parks told me that he learned from Iyer that Grand and cellist Okkyung Lee had secretly and maliciously distributed emails to journalist all over Europe, with Grand’s criminal accusation Letter attached, identifying me by name in the emails and calling for my removal from the music industry (see below).

Meanwhile Grand was telling Iyer that she would not send her accusations to journalists, and even though Iyer had already knew that Grand had done just that (NPR, NY Times), he still told me that he didn’t believe that Grand’s goal was to harm my career??? Incredible!

Here is and example, sent to journalist Julia Neupert of Southwest German Radio:

“…i know this might be out of blue but i felt more than compelled to share this courageous letter written by my friend maria grand… she also gave me a permission to reveal that the “X” in the letter is steve coleman...
…
this is so depressing but also the ugly truth… think finally it’s the right time for this story to come out so we can get rid of this poisonous person and his influence before it goes even further… i know as a fact that she is not the only victim ever……”

And obviously, believing Grand was all based our physical appearances. Why else would you believe someone about an accusation as heinous as rape without evidence. As I repeatedly told both Iyer and Parks; if I looked like guitarist Bill Frisell, none of this would’ve happened, and no one would’ve believed Grand’s accusations of years of rape.

Grand and I never lived anywhere near each other, I live in another state. Terri Lyne Carrington told me in 2018 that she did not believe Grand’s narrative. Carrington said what woman travels almost 100 miles to get raped, and then repeats this again and again, for over 5 years?

Why didn’t Grand call the police? Why didn’t her family call the police (they all know me, and they knew that Grand and I were involve sexually). Why didn’t any of the many musicians on the scene who knew about relationship call the police?

Vijay Iyer admitted to me that he knew that Grand and I were sexually involved for years. And yet Iyer never blackballed me, never called the police, etc. Instead he invited us over to his home on New Year’s Day 2015 (I have multiple photos).

There is a simple explanation for all of this. Grand is knowingly lying. And suddenly, after 5 years and 4 months, at the age of 25, Grand suddenly realized that she was being forced to engage in unwanted sex.

Where are the other young women that I forced to pay for lessons with unwanted sex? Grand stated that they existed, but she refuses to say who they are. Grand’s friend Amirtha Kidambi stated online that I had forced other women, but she refused to name them.

This is very sick, and it needs to stop. Grand is almost 32 years old now, and she is STILL LYING.

More Evidence of conspiracies to harm my career. For ALL of these horrendous lies, Grand was simply believed. She is as bad as George Santos:

—

Grand has a history of creating and distributing false criminal accusations of forced sex, false accusations of workplace sexual harassment, and false accusations of both physical assault and abuse. 

In 2011 Grand falsely told her mother that I had forced her to have sex with me (a false criminal accusation). In a September 30, 2011 electronic chat, Grand admitted to me that she lied to her mother. Grand told me that she lied to her mother about being forced to have sex in order to look innocent in her mother’s eyes. Grand got caught trying to lie about this under oath, in her April 17, 2019 deposition.

Grand: “I told her that I wanted to look innocent and that it was the reason why I said you were forcing me too.”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 82-6 Filed 10/24/19 Page 384-385 of 422 PageID #: 1174-1175
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 92-4 Filed 11/22/19 Page 11-13 of 81 PageID #: 2747-2749

—

On or about Aug 19, 2015 Grand sent an email to drummer Adam Cruz falsely telling him that I had fired her during my Jul/Aug 2015 Chicago Residency because Grand would not have sex with me (Grand was never fired in 2015 or in any other year, and worked with me in every month in 2015 after this Residency, i.e., in Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec; and frequently in 2016.

Grand: “…he wanted me to open my legs too and well I just wasnt up for that So he fired me in a flamboyant way and I told him to fuck himself in a flamboyant way too..”
Grand lies to Adam Cruz about being fired by Coleman because of her refusal to have sex

—

On June 25, 2018, Grand communicated via text messages to her publicist Matthew Merewitz, that Anthony Tidd (the bassist in my ensemble) told Grand that I physically beat my deceased ex-wife, the great pianist Geri Allen, which is a simply horrendous lie.

Grand: “Anthony Tidd is (was) a good friend of mine – He saw everything go down”… “He also knows that Steve beat Geri and all that stuff”
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 92-4 Filed 11/22/19 Page 24 of 81 PageID #: 2760

This proves that Grand’s goal was to harm me as much as possible, no matter how extreme her lies were. Merewitz echoed and spread Grand’s defamation of me, and has to this day refused to publicly admit his conspiracy with Grand to harm me:

Merewitz: “Wow. Yeah well when word gets out that he beat Geri Allen and all the shit from his past it will be hard to ignore his history of this behavior.” 
Case 1:18-cv-05663-JBW-RLM Document 92-4 Filed 11/22/19 Page 29 of 81 PageID #: 2765

—

On November 21, 2017, Grand communicated to pianist and Harvard professor Vijay Iyer, the lie that I went to the hospital of my deceased ex-wife Geri Allen, as Geri was dying of cancer, and that I allegedly apologized to Allen on her “death bed”, and asked for Allen’s forgiveness for abusing Allen in the late 1980s. This is simply a horrendous lie. Since 2020, we have requested that Iyer (and others) reveal all of these horrendous manipulations by Grand, and also reveal Iyer’s role in helping to enable Grand, helping her to harm my career. Iyer has so far refused.

It is clear from the text below that Iyer believed Grand, not because of any evidence (this wild narrative is easy to verify), but because Iyer clearly wanted to believe Grand (confirmation bias). Iyer tried to convince me that he did not believe Grand, but contemporaneous communications do not lie.

Grand: you know, it’s weird, because before Geri passed, Steve went over to see her and apologized

Grand: he asked for forgiveness and I was told he cried a lot so he know

Iyer: Seriously?

Grand: Yep

Iyer: Shit

Grand: he knows what he’s doing causes harm

Grand: I wish he could’ve done that 20 years ago, instead of when she was on her death bed

Iyer: I got the weirdest bullshit email from him after that. I think I told you

Grand: no? after she died?

Iyer: Yes. I’d texted him when the news came, just to check on him. I guess Ravi had done the same

Iyer: So he emailed Ravi and me and it was another one of his long pseudophilosophical blathering emails

Grand: oh god

Iyer: About the circle of life and shit

Grand: that’s terrible.

Iyer: I couldn’t believe it

Grand: man.

Iyer: But knowing what you told me puts it in a different light Like, it’s a fucking front

Grand: I was so angry when I heard that he had went and asked for forgiveness and cried. It was way too late!

Iyer: Who told you that he was there?

Grand: Anthony

Iyer: He saw it?

Grand: I’m not sure. He just said Steve cried a lot.
Vijay Iyer Subpoena Production Excerpt (Code of Conduct origin – Geri Allen Lies) page 24-28

This is an absolutely horrendous conversation. I am still amazed that Iyer could have this conversation, right after Geri passed, and not vet what he was being told.

Iyer’s ego is out of control.

But this is all due to bias. Because had Iyer been fair, none of this would’ve happened, or at least he would not be knee deep in this shit.

Iyer wanted to believe these ridiculous lies, all of which could easily be vetted. I warned Iyer in January 2015 that he was being manipulated. But he refused to listen, telling people privately that I should seek mental help.

So Iyer is in this position today all because of his own choices, his arrogance and his implicit biases. All he had to do was to treat people fairly.

Grand definitely has a tenuous relationship with the truth. But what also shocked me was the willingness of many non-black individuals to accept her improbable narratives without even the slightest vetting. Given the private statements of Iyer, and the actions of my non-black colleagues, how can I think this blackballing is based on anything other than bias?

As a direct result of Grand’s criminal accusations, I have only been hired once to work in the United States since October 2017. And long time musical colleagues who worked with me for decades are now not even talking to me. People whom I don’t even know are not talking to me. And almost all of these individuals are non-black. These individuals don’t even care about evidence. What am I supposed to think?

And people like Iyer, Parks, Shyu and others still won’t publicly speak up.

The next time any of you see Grand, ask her why she asked bassist Linda Oh, vocalist Sara Serpa and others did I abuse them when i gave them private lessons?

The answer is obvious. Grand is doing exactly what ex-President Donald Trump did when he called Georgia.

“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”

Do you “find” votes, after you lost, or are they simply there?

Do you “find” women that I forced to have sex with me, after you have falsely accused me, or do these women exist?

Grand’s lawyers told her that she needed to “find“ other women to accuse me, otherwise her case was weak.

WTF?

What kind of corrupt advice is that to give to a client?

So Grand went fishing for other female musicians that I have given lessons to, to see if I forced them to have sex with me, in exchange for music music lessons. And some of Grand’s non-black female colleagues, who do not even know me, stated online that I had abused other women – simply based on Grand’s accusations.

All of a sudden I am a rapist.

Grand tried to convince my then current girlfriend (another young woman, but black, who told me about Grand’s efforts), and this failed. Grand tried to get my wife and vocalist Jen Shyu to turn on me, and this failed. Miles told me he was afraid. Rio Sakairi of the Jazz Gallery was afraid that Grand and her co-conspirators would come after her next. Then the Jazz Gallery Board muzzled Rio, and she stopped talking to both me and my manager. But before this, Rio told me that she was being pressured by Grand and her friends.

Grand blackmailed men like Miles Okazaki into silence. Clearly Iyer, Parks, Pennicott and others are afraid to speak (or simply don’t want to). Grand’s supporters have tried to intimidate Pi Recordings and cancel them, all without having the slightest idea of what is going on.

These mostly non-black people just assume that I am guilty of forcing a white woman to engage in unwanted sex, without the slightest evidence.

In other words, Grand did exactly what Trump was doing.

FEAR. People are afraid to talk.

Is this what we want our creative music scene to be, a musical version of the McCarthy Era?

This is simply corrupt.

There is NOTHING wrong with a woman choosing who she wants to be with sexually. It’s nobody else’s business. And these are the same people who scream about a woman’s right to choose what happens with her body.

The only question is this, is Grand telling the truth or lying.

As an appellate judge put it:

Appellate Judge – May 13, 2022 Oral Arguments  33:36
(Bailen is Grand’s lawyer)

Knowledge of falsity would meet any of those standards, right? [Bailen: Potentially] It seems like the way this case works, it sort of rises or falls on whether the statements are true or false, right? Because she made the statements, and she was there, and she bases, she bases them on firsthand knowledge. So either they’re true, and she knows them to be true, or they’re false, and she would know them to be false. It’s not like she’s advised, [and] she’s writing something secondhand.

EXACTLY! This dispute is about lying.

If I am a rapist, I belong in jail. No one should be going around forcing others to engage in unwanted sex, using any method, force or coercion.

But if Grand is knowingly lying, then what?

Steve Coleman

The Criminal Sexual Acts that Grand has accused me of:
(these are not “opinions” – people go to jail for these crimes)

Sexual Abuse (Rape)
18 U.S. Code 2242
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2242

Kidnapping by Inveiglement
18 U.S. Code 1201
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1201

Abusive Sexual Contact (Sexual Assault)
18 U.S. Code 2244(b)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2244