Full Force

“I was trying to keep it on the down low,” says Defamation League vocalist Chaz Lomack of his arrest in SDSU’s recent federal drug sting.

“I was sitting in jail watching Fox 6 news, and I see my face on TV being led into the courtroom in handcuffs. They announced my name at the same time they said they found x amount of ecstasy, x amounts of cocaine, and x amounts of marijuana. They made it look like the whole operation was all about me.”

Since the May 6 bust, nine felony counts against Lomack (aka Khemical Ali) have been reduced to two counts of endangering public health with a controlled substance (cocaine).

“They initially gave me a lot of bullshit charges like transporting across county lines, which were all dismissed. My original bail of $253,000 was reduced to $35,000. They first had me as selling to an undercover DEA agent, but when they raided my house they didn’t find anything but one marijuana plant and ten pills of Adderall, which I wasn’t even charged with.”

At his attorney’s request, Lomack won’t specify his current charges.

“Best-case scenario is I get probation; worse case is I get a year in the pokey. I think I’ll get six months and have to serve three.”

His next court date is on June 18; sentencing is July 10.

“I haven’t planned anything after that because I don’t know what lies ahead. But Defamation League is in full force.… I’m pretty much now focused full time on the band. Before [the arrest] I was busy doing whatnot. Now I’m no longer busy doing that.”

Lomack says that Fox 6 news did a story on Def League two years ago.

“They talked about how we party and do drugs and are terrible influences on people.” That story was followed by a piece in Hustler magazine.

“When the DEA was in the house [during the raid], one of the cops said, ‘That’s Khemical Ali. I saw him in Hustler.’ ”

Defamation League appears June 12 at Brick by Brick.

– Ken Leighton