LOS ANGELES

Ex-Cake drummer gets 15 years for molesting girl

A former drummer for the alternative rock band Cake has been sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for molesting a 3-year-old girl during a party five years ago.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Tuesday that 48-year-old Peter Ivan McNeal was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

In March 2013, jurors found McNeal guilty of one count of oral copulation of a child 10 years old or younger.

Deputy District Attorney Elena Abramson said McNeal molested the girl at a Laurel Canyon home in 2009 during a Thanksgiving party, where he was a guest.

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Cake, which formed in Sacramento, rose to fame with its 1996 hit “The Distance.”

McNeal was in the band from 2001 to 2005.

FERGUSON, Mo.

Brown’s stepfather says he’s sorry for angry words

The stepfather of Michael Brown has apologized for angry comments he made after the grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who killed his stepson, but said his remarks had nothing to do with the arson and looting that ravaged Ferguson and the surrounding area.

Louis Head said Wednesday in a statement that he was full of emotion on the night of Nov. 24, when he yelled “Burn this bitch down!” in a crowd of protesters.

St. Louis County police said Tuesday they are investigating Head’s comments as part of a broader inquiry into the arson, vandalism and looting. Twelve commercial buildings were destroyed in the hours after the grand jury decision.

Brown, 18, was shot and killed by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. Wilson, who is white, told the grand jury he fired because his life was in danger, but some witnesses said Brown, who was black and unarmed, was trying to surrender.

– From news service reports


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