MADISON, Wis. — Singer Howie Day has been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct in connection with an encounter with two women on his tour bus. Day, 23, was the opener for Barenaked Ladies on Wednesday at the Alliant Energy Center. He was charged on Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, Madison police were called to Day’s tour bus at the arena about 1:30 a.m. Thursday after Day allegedly locked a woman in a bathroom on the bus for refusing a sexual advance. He then broke the cellphone of another woman trying to call police.
According to the complaint, Day and his band members invited four or five women on 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 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, the complaint said.
Another woman tried to get Day to let her friend out, then tried to call police on her cellphone. Day allegedly grabbed the phone and broke it in half, then yelled at her to get out.
“That was probably wrong of me,” Day reportedly told an officer, referring to breaking the woman’s cell phone. “But I felt violated.”
After the first woman got out of the bathroom, Day allegedly threw beer on them, the complaint said.
Day admitted grabbing the cellphone as the woman tried to call police and breaking it, but said he thought it may have already been broken, the complaint said.
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 the woman told him, “We didn’t come here to hook up,” officials said. He allegedly told her, “Then leave.”
Day was released from jail after posting $850 bail. He is scheduled for a court appearance on April 1.