Neutral Milk Hotel’s Julian Koster was granted a protection from abuse order against a Penobscot County fan who accused him of grooming her.
Koster, a bassist for the indie rock band, was granted a two-year protection from abuse order against Anna “Nesey” Gallons, 41, on Thursday in Bangor District Court. He filed for the order less than a year after Gallons publicly accused Koster in 2024 of grooming her when she was a teenager.
The ruling marked the end of a nearly year-long legal battle across 11 different protection cases in Penobscot County. Koster filed for the protection order in March 2025 in Penobscot County because that’s where Gallons and her partner live, according to court filings.
Gallons is a “credible threat” to the physical safety of Koster, 53, who Gallons was found to have abused under Maine law, according to an order signed by Bangor District Judge Harris Mattson. Gallons is prohibited from possessing weapons and was ordered to immediately relinquish any weapons to police.
Gallons and her partner declined to comment. Koster’s attorney, Evi Woodlinn, said she sent a request for comment from the Bangor Daily News to Koster’s team, but no response was provided by time of publication.
The order is in effect until Feb. 26, 2028. During that time, Gallons is prohibited from having any contact with Koster, the order said.
Gallons accused Koster of grooming her in a series of Instagram posts in July 2024. The grooming started in 2000 when she was 15, she said. It escalated into a sexual intimacy in 2001 when she was 16 and they were living in Georgia.
Koster denied the grooming and sexual assault allegations. In a statement at the time he said Gallons campaigned against him with “thousands of disturbing, abusive, and obsessive messages.”
The pair had a sexual relationship in 2001, when Gallons was 16, the age of Georgia’s age of consent, Koster said at the time. The consensual relationship lasted until 2008, he said.
While Gallons was at the legal age of consent when the relationship started, it should not have happened, Koster previously said. He said he should’ve been “more responsible” about the age gap and he denied all of Gallons’ other accusations.
In the Bangor court filing, Koster detailed the abuse he experienced from Gallons and her partner.
“My friendship with Anna has been tumultuous, and I suffered years of emotional, verbal, financial, and more recently, physical abuse,” Koster’s court filing said.
Gallons and her partner separately confessed their love for Koster and wanted him to be with them, the court filing said.
“[They] ultimately demanded that I join a polyamorous relationship with both of them and co-parent their children — or else (i.e., they would destroy me, destroy themselves, etc.),” Koster said.
Koster spent three weeks in Maine in May 2024 helping Gallons and her partner, he said. During that time, the couple would yell at him, calling him a “bastard,” “scoundrel” and evil if he refused their demands, Koster said.
There was “tremendous pressure” to have sex with the couple, which Koster said he did not want. Koster had a panic attack from the verbal attacks from the couple and he eventually gave up, allowing Gallons to sexually touch him, the filing said.
“After the assault, I left feeling emotionally brutalized and was terrified to see them again,” Koster said.
He returned to his home in New York, changed his phone number and cut off contact with the Gallons, the filing said.
Gallons publicly accused Koster of grooming her about a month after the visit.
In the roughly year between Koster cutting contact and the March 2025 filing for protection the couple tried to “incite others” against Koster, the filing said.
The couple also told Koster they have a gun, so they can “defend” themselves against him, Koster said.
“The ‘story’ they share about me has grown from the idea that I am a ‘groomer’ to a sprawling, disgusting, and entirely false tale that speaks to [the Gallons] depraved minds,” Koster said. “They have publicly alleged, among many other disturbing lies, that I am a ‘f—king monster,’ a ‘psychopath’ or an ‘abusive sociopath,’ a serial sexual abuser, a serial child abuser, a violent physical abuser, a violent animal abuser, and even a murderer.”
The Gallons talked about Koster’s “pedophilic predilections” in court filings. During a January 2024 visit Gallons said she believed Koster returned her love and he was “willing to face accountability, and had grown and healed from his past problematic predilections and become a safe person,” she said in a court filing.
However, Koster did not return her love, meaning the sexual relationship was under false pretenses and constituted “multiple assaults,” Gallons said.
Gallons thought she and Koster were “together” after the January visit until he returned in May 2024 and refused to answer her questions, she said. Koster’s efforts were to “bait” her, she said.
After Koster had one of his “people” make “disturbing claims about [Gallons and her partner] in an online discussion space,” she said she decided to come forward with the grooming allegations.
The Gallons filed counter protection orders against Koster, which were denied after the judge granted Koster’s two-year order.
