Ryan Kopf

Ryan Kopf
Ryan Kopf
	Photo of Ryan Kopf taken from Encyclopedia Dramatica
Threat Level	Tier 4 - Red
Known Events Frequented	Due to his wealth, assume he has a nationwide reach;
Approximate Location	Davenport, Iowa (he owns a bar/restaurant there as of 2021)
Alias(es)	LordSephiroth;

Ryan Kopf is the owner and chair of the anime convention Anime Midwest. At one point he was known for having involvement at the executive level with multiple anime conventions based in the midwestern United States. He is also infamous for having over 20 people accuse him of sexual harassment. Additionally, he has been banned from multiple conventions, including Anime Central, AnimeIowa, and Anime Milwaukee. Since the topic of Ryan Kopf has been done to death, we will be linking to other pages that have existed for far longer.

Recommended Handling Methods

Do not attend a convention run by Ryan Kopf

Do not host a panel at a convention run by Ryan Kopf

Do not be a vendor at a convention run by Ryan Kopf

Do not work for Ryan Kopf or any convention he has involvement with

An outdated list of allegations

(Warning: This information may be extremely outdated)

Rape Accusations

Ryan has multiple accusations of sexual assault. The first known incident happened on October 30, 2006 against a girl named Mary whom he met in high school. A second known incident happened in 2012. "She says the con chair told her not to say anything about it so she stayed silent." Another incident occurred in May 2013 and copies of the police report from Davenport, Iowa have surfaced online. The girl had a rape kit done, but (likely fearing for her life at the hands of Ryan Kopf) decided not to press charges. (THAT IN NO WAY MAKES THIS OKAY!!!)

The rape charge can be found here:

In March 2015, Kopf assaulted Carissa Watson in Japan. She says he slipped his hand down the back of her pants and began fingering her. Two others were present but she wasn't certain if they could see what he was doing.

In August 2015, Kopf raped Crystal Hallenbeck at Liberty City Anime Con.

In January 2016, Kopf sexually assaults Crystal Hallenbeck while on a trip to scout hotel locations for that year's Liberty City Anime Con.

In March 2016, Kopf rapes Aria Carter in Japan. He later publishes audio to somehow prove his innocence, but it is actually revenge porn...which, of course, is illegal.

In October 2016, Kopf assaults Carissa Watson in Japan for a second time. On this particular trip, Kopf made sure that Jacob Lipman had his own room in a Japanese apartment, forcing Carissa to share a room with Kopf.

On February 12, 2017, Kopf rapes Asha Khan-Snyder at Kanpai!Con. They realized at the beginning of March that they had missed their period. Asha took a pregnancy test and it was positive. Kopf sent them $600 to get an abortion with AnimeConOrg funds, from the AnimeConOrg account. We have screenshots of this transaction. Asha had their abortion on March 9th, 2017.

In 2019, another victim of Ryan Kopf came forward saying that he raped her while on a trip to Japan. Ryan, thinking it was going to actually somehow help his case, posted audio of the sex on Facebook. It was quickly taken down by Facebook as revenge porn. At best, it just confirms that Ryan Kopf is a creeper who records girls without their knowledge while having sex with them. At worst, it can actually confirm that he really did raped her.

Court cases and Related

Cease and Desist

On July 1, 2013, the guy from The Life of the Traegorn posted "Why I Won't Go To A Ryan Kopf Run Convention" on his personal blog. Three months later, drawing more attention to his rape charge, Ryan sent a cease-and-desist letter. Not that it does anything because anyone can post any public records. Ryan Kopf sued Trae Dorn and his Nerd & Tie web site for reporting on Ryan's idiocy. The case was thrown out because Ryan was an idiot and sued him in Iowa, where Dorn doesn't live. He sued a second time in Cook County, Illinois and the case is still ongoing, but it's apparently costing Ryan (as well as Nerd & Tie) a crapton of money to do this. Given that the Nerd & Tie posts were accurate, there's no basis for defamation.

Other Court Cases

Look in the Iowa Trial Court Search and you'll see case ID 07821 CVCV294343. It's titled "RYAN KOPF V UNNAMED USER OF THE FLUFFYSPARKLES ACC" which was filed in early 2015. He's apparently suing a Tumblr user who posted facts about his rape case.

There's also a 2010 case where he sued Elise D. Carroll, who was apparently on Open Source University Meetup with him at Iowa OSUM. I wonder what that was about. Boy, he loves to sue! He probably thought she looked at him funny once. ...or maybe he sued her after she sued him (since there's another earlier case between the two of them.)

Witness/Victim statement by facebook user Aria Carter

(The following text was copied and pasted from a public Facebook post made in July 2021 by user "Aria Carter". A link to the full post is included in the "links" section)

🚨 An exposé and timeline of Ryan Kopf's crimes and the subsequent movement to cancel him and hold him accountable for his actions in addition to an ethical guide to the con scene.

As a victim of Kopf's I am so beyond tired of seeing people on the internet claiming there is "no proof" that Kopf is a serial rapist and a danger to the Midwest con scene and/or whining about how his conventions are the only viable options in the region in response to being called out for their continued attendance.

Trigger Warning: This post contains graphic accounts of multiple rapes and sexual assaults committed by Ryan Kopf spanning the course of fifteen years. This is going to be very long and will venture into some very dark places. Please proceed with caution.

🚨 YEAR: 2006 - October 30th: Kopf rapes Mary Metzger. She says she met Kopf in high school. He was a couple grades ahead of her due to him skipping a grade. He was Vice President of the History Club, which Mary was in. She says club hours were typically spent just playing DDR, talking about anime, etc. She says at the time she had a crush on him. She thought he was smart, funny, and would go far in life. At 17 he opened an arcade downtown called Game Central. She estimates it had around three computers, various game systems, and concessions such as soda and chips for sale. Unbeknownst to Mary at the time, during the summer of that year, around June or July, Kopf allegedly tied a girl up and made her do sexual things while recording her against her will.

In late August or early September of 2006, Mary recalls an incident occurring at Game Central between Kopf and a regular patron of the arcade. Mary says the girl accused Kopf of having explicit sexual content and media saved on his computer featuring children (one of those videos being footage of the aforementioned girl that was tied up and 15 years old at the time) and punched him in the face. He filed assault charges on her. At the time, Kopf convinced Mary that the girl was just crazy or trying to start drama. At this point in time, Mary and Kopf had been messaging via MSN and playing runescape together most of the summer and she wanted to trust him. Fast forward to October 30th 2006 - Mary's 17th birthday. She invited two of her closest friends at the time to come hang out at Game Central, but they ended up bailing. Mary decided to go on her own and mingle with other regulars and Kopf.

Since Kopf rented the arcade space from Pearl City Plaza, he had keys to the whole plaza. Mary and Kopf ended up sneaking off from the rest of the crowd and going into the plaza and up to the top floor restrooms. Mary says they made out for a while and planned on going further. He asked her if she had brought a condom, to which she replied that she hadn't. At this point Kopf tried to pressure her into anal sex, which she clearly indicated she did not want to do and told him no. He shoved her against the sink at this point and began forcibly penetrating her anally against her will.

She says the pain was horrible but she was able to fight him off and get away. She ran out as fast as she could crying. From the parking lot, she called one of her good friends at the time and told him what had transpired. He told her to go to the police station and turn Kopf in and get a rape kit done. Mary, however, recalled how her previous rapist had gotten away with his crimes and she was wary of putting herself through all of the questioning and trauma of having to retell her story over and over for nothing. She went home instead.

At school, Mary told people in her friend group what had happened. Some believed her, while others insisted she was lying. The President of the History Club (also a close friend of Kopf) heard about her allegations. His girlfriend's mother worked with victims of sexual assault and they convinced Mary to talk with her. She recalls going to her apartment where she was convinced to talk to a detective and report Kopf. Mary was interviewed multiple times, but due to her waiting a while to go to the police, a rape kit couldn't be done. They took down a list of the people she had told. They eventually told her they would not be pursuing charges because she had "told too many people and it was too much of a he said, she said situation." He got away with it. The next year he ran for Mayor with the President of the History Club's girlfriend as his campaign manager.

🚨 YEAR: 2012 - Dates unknown: Kopf rapes [REDACTED] at an unspecified convention. She says the con chair told her not to say anything about it so she stayed silent. This indicates to me that it was not a Kopf con itself, but rather he was an attendee or there to pass out promotional fliers for one of his own events as he is known to do.

🚨 YEAR: 2013 - May 10th: Kopf rapes [REDACTED] at a convention. A police report is filed and Sam Towb is listed as a witness. Charges not filed. No arrests made.

🚨 YEAR: 2015 - February: Kopf begins his ongoing lawsuit against Trae Dorn, Pher Sturz, and Nerd & Tie for defamation after they publish an article discussing the allegations against him. He initially filed in the wrong state and the case was dismissed. He re-filed correctly shortly after. March: Kopf assaults Carissa Watson in Japan. She says he slipped his hand down the back of her pants and began fingering her. Two others were present but she wasn't certain if they could see what he was doing. August: Kopf rapes Crystal Hallenbeck at Liberty City Anime Con. She says she was originally hired by him to staff Liberty City Anime Con after expressing an interest in teaching the dance/ball. She was suddenly promoted to co-head of events under Percy Cardona, even though she had no prior experience in convention work, just dance. She had one video interview with Kopf and one with Cardona. Everything after was done via email. On the Thursday of the con weekend, Crystal met Cardona at his house as she was unfamiliar with the area. Upon their meeting, Cardona pulled up her shirt and said, "if you want to catch a rapist you need to be sexy." It took him mere moments to lay on the sexual harassment and degradation. Crystal later discovered that Cardona altered the room assignments so that he they were now the only two in their shared room. At the end of the staff meeting that day, Crystal recalls Kopf emphasizing that the most important thing was to always have a supply of booze in the convention operations room (conops) at all times.

Crystal began assisting with set up and Kopf followed her around the whole time, not contributing. During this time, she explained her history of living with an abusive man, and Kopf instantly minimized the experiences and told her to, "just get over it." On the first day of the convention Crystal approached Kopf after hearing a number of complaints about Cardona harassing other women. He dismissed her and said that because nobody had come to him directly it must not be that serious.

Around 10pm that night 18+ events began with adult themed content, so, as co-head of events, Crystal had to ensure that all of the doors were properly staffed with people 18 and over. When she stepped aside from a public area to make sure a room was cleared, Kopf approached her, congratulated her for the great job she was doing running his convention, and asked her what her favorite drink was. Shortly after she told him, he returned with a whiskey and coke. She tried to refuse the drink with the excuse that she was on shift. He assured her that everything was under control and that it was fine. Crystal recalls feeling a lot of pressure at that point to accept out of politeness, as he was her boss and in a position of authority. She proceeded to take the drink but could only sip at it because Kopf had made it incredibly strong.

In a bold move, she asked Kopf point blank if the rumors online about him using his conventions to get girls drunk and rape them had any truth behind them. Crystal recalls that he became extremely defensive and began ranting about how it was all just slander and people exaggerating the truth. He said, "I may have done some bad things in some people's eyes, but deep down I'm a good guy. It's just lies and people are trying to drag me down!"

After this conversation, Kopf began referring to Crystal as a tsundere - an anime trope which describes a women with an abrasive personality that will become soft and 'lovey dovey' over time. In hindsight, Crystal believes that his association of this term with her implied that he saw her as merely a sexual conquest from the very beginning.

After the live events of the night were over, she went to close conops and found Kopf, [REDACTED¹], [REDACTED²], and [REDACTED³], all there drinking and joking around. She noticed a large amount of empty cups lining the room. Crystal began cleaning, getting ready for the next day, and chatting with the others. The entire time Kopf kept trying to hand her drinks even though she hadn't asked and didn't want them. She kept saying "no" and he kept telling her to relax. She pulled him aside to further discuss the Cardona situation because she was concerned about being alone in a room with him. Kopf instructed her again to calm down and invited her to stay with him and the others that night. He said he would do something about it tomorrow if more people came to him with complaints. Crystal decided to stay with them in conops.

After the group had consumed a fair bit of alcohol, Kopf suggested they all go watch anime in his hotel room. When they arrived, he instantly turned on hentai. The room had two beds, a shower, and a chair. Crystal recalls sitting on a bed between the headboard and [REDACTED²], [REDACTED¹] across from her, Kopf next to [REDACTED¹], and [REDACTED³] in the chair.

As soon as the hentai started Kopf began to kiss [REDACTED¹] while sexually rubbing [REDACTED²] and urging [REDACTED³] to participate. As the sexual activity began, Crystal became very uncomfortable, but felt trapped. Eventually there was an opportunity for her to leave, but as she stood to go Kopf grabbed her by the legs, threw her back down on the bed, and pulled her pants and underwear down to her ankles.

He then began raping her while she was kicking and yelling "NO!" When she succeeded in pushing him off of her, he proceeded to thrust [REDACTED¹]'s head between Crystal's legs. She again screamed "NO!" and [REDACTED¹] instantly stopped participating. Crystal finally managed to crawl into a corner in shock, pulled up her pants, and cried there until the sexual activities concluded. When they finished Kopf got into his bed, said the others could stay or go, and fell asleep. Crystal instantly left and [REDACTED²] took her back to her own room. There they asked Crysyal if she was okay and she recalls being unable to speak. She nodded her head and cried herself to sleep that night. Saturday she was awakened by Cardona pulling the blankets off of her and attempting to grope her breasts and stomach. He said he thought she was "overheating." Crystal got up and went to find Kopf. She told him that what he had done the night before was horrible, in addition to demanding he fire Cardona.

Kopf insisted he never heard her say no, despite her yelling it at him multiple times. He then placed his hand on her hip and said, "if it was that bad I'll make it up to you and you can come to my room to fix it." After this confrontation he still refused to fire Cardona claiming that not enough people had spoken out. Con work began for the day and Crystal worked all day by herself as Cardona was off due to an injured knee. Crystal convinced as many people as she could to speak to Kopf about Cardona harassing them.

Despite the numerous people coming to Kopf, he continued to refuse to remove Cardona. Crystal recalls that she kept pestering him all night, but he refused to acknowledge that Cardona was a problem and continued to solicit drinking and sex with him as an alternative. Since she had gotten an extra roommate, she was fine going to her room. It was the first night with a buffer between her and Cardona. After she finished with her work the next day, she set off to confront Kopf about Cardona yet again. Crystal recalls being leary to be in a room alone with him following that first night, but fortunately there were others in conops - [REDACTED¹], [REDACTED⁴], and [REDACTED⁵]. Again, Kopf kept trying to get her drunk to avoid dealing with the situation. When she said no, he turned up the heat on the thermostat and removed his pants. She says that [REDACTED¹] followed suit, but no one else did. Crystal recalls that [REDACTED⁵] began to cry at this moment. Crystal turned the heat down and told Kopf to stop doing sexually natured things without consent and he responded by pulling out a paper. On it he wrote a document of consent and attempted to pressure everyone into signing it. The night ended with Kopf blaming Crystal for "ruining his fun."

🚨 YEAR: 2016 - January: Kopf sexually assaults Crystal Hallenbeck while on a trip to scout hotel locations for that year's Liberty City Anime Con. After the events of the previous year's convention and Crystal spearheading the removal of Percy Cardona, she was offered a position as Head of Live Events. She was apprehensive and decided to discuss the offer with a few people that knew what Kopf had done the previous year. These individuals convinced her to accept the job because she was the only person who could seem to prevent Kopf from raping anyone else.

Crystal recalls that the people managing Liberty City Anime Con - who were all completely aware that Kopf had raped her - shamed her into keeping quiet because it "looked bad on the convention."

When she began as the Head of Live Events she had no choice but to be in contact with Kopf through email or facebook messenger. She says that Kopf would rarely answer any con related questions and would respond by either telling her to "look at the sheet" or with sexual innuendos. Crystal voiced her concerns about Kopf's constant sexual harassment to another staffer but she dismissed her by saying that he had never been inappropriate with her. Crystal recalls how she regularly spoke with this individual about the way Kopf treated her, and how he raped her, but she continued to insist that the only way for them to prevent Kopf from raping anyone else was to continue working for him.

A group of staffers (Kopf, Crystal, [REDACTED⁶], and [REDACTED²]) met up in New York around this time to scout out the area in anticipation for the next Liberty City Anime Con, which was to be held in Time Square. Kopf had booked a single hotel room for the four but Crystal wasn't concerned as she had already planned ahead and was intending on staying with her partner's brother and his fiancé while in NYC. Earlier that year, Crystal had designed and illustrated a character to be used for advertising the convention. After sending a sample drawing off to Kopf, he almost immediately made it the official logo of the convention without her knowledge. On this trip, she asked Kopf to pay her for the artwork she supplied and he threw a one dollar bill in her face.

He took Crystal to the hotel bar where she thought they were going to continue discussing her concerns about the convention further, but he confided in her that he wanted to bring Cardona back so he would look less scummy by comparison. Kopf also told her that he was upset with her for forcing him to remove Cardona in the first place.

After stopping by the hotel, Kopf bought broadway tickets and dinner for the four, but then a storm hit, closing down the subway, roads, and Crystal's bus to where she was supposed to stay that night, which wasn't in walking distance given the weather. Subsequently, she was forced to stay in the hotel room, with no financial means to afford her own room. Kopf had purchased alcohol for the evening, and Crystal, [REDACTED⁶], and [REDACTED²] began doing karaoke.

After the karaoke, Crystal recalls Kopf exclaiming that she was always angry and yelling at him. She responded that it was because he raped her. He followed up the accusation with his standard, "I never heard you say no." Crystal pointed out that she literally started screaming the word no at him the previous year, in addition to kicking. [REDACTED²] - who was in the room for the assault and subsequent rape - chimed in in agreement, stating that Crystal clearly and loudly said "no." At this point, Kopf apologized and offered to make it up to her with sexual acts, which she swiftly declined. Kopf then proposed they all watch a movie. Shortly into the film, he began groping Crystal between the legs.

She threw his hand off of her and sternly said "no" yet again. He continued to persistently rub her leg, at which point she stood up, told him, "I have never, and will never, want you to touch me," before leaving the room. Crystal went home the next morning. March: Kopf rapes me (Aria Carter) in Japan. I've been a member of the con scene as both attendee and staff for years but only interacted directly with Kopf once in person before the AnimeConOrg trip to Japan. Frankly, I was shocked to have even been selected for the opportunity at all seeing as I really wasn't anyone super important.

We briefly spoke at one of his conventions where I was running merch for one of the bands (I don't recall which con it was seeing as I used to frequent them all). I approached him to formally introduce myself as he was bringing in pizzas for the green room and we spoke for a minute about our mutual excitement for the upcoming adventure before parting ways.

Almost immediately after we arrived in Japan, Kopf began making sexual propositions (he told me if I had any "needs" while we were abroad he was happy to help). After I made it clear that I wasn't interested, he decided to take what he wanted by force that same night. That evening we all went out to a bar near where we were staying to drink and have fun. Kopf was the one ordering the drinks for us as he was the only one who spoke fluent enough Japanese. In hindsight, it is clear to me that Kopf either a) spiked one of my drinks when I wasn't paying attention or b) was asking the bartender to give me double shots without my knowledge - though I highly suspect it's the first scenario. At the bar, Kopf kept attempting to grope me and this eventually escalated to him trying to maneuver his hand down the back of my pants to finger me. When we left, I was so severely intoxicated (beyond what I should have been for the amount I had consumed) that I couldn't see straight, talk normal, or even walk properly without a person holding me up on either side. It was as if my body was a sack of bricks. I had never experienced anything like it before and haven't to this day.

When we got back to where we were all staying Kopf insisted that everyone else go off to bed and said he could get me to my room alone. The only other woman who was on the Japan trip had to arrive late and was not with us yet so I had a room to myself at this point. Instead of taking me there, Kopf took me to his own room (he was the only person that didn't share a room for the entire duration of the trip) and threw me onto the bed like a ragdoll, stripped me down, and began raping my barely conscious body after I had repeatedly told him I wasn't interested in a sexual relationship with him all day.

When it was over I managed to get back to my room and proceeded to black out. This was on one of the first days of a month long AnimeConOrg related trip. Because it costs an arm and a leg to change a flight, I was stuck in the company of my rapist for thirty days. The next morning Kopf pretended everything was normal and went on being inappropriately touchy with me to a point where others on the trip were noticing my struggle to distance myself from him. I became afraid of what would happen and what he might do if I continued rejecting his advances. After all, men like Kopf don't handle being told "no" very well.

He continued being pushy until I finally did the one thing I could think of to prevent a repeat of what had happened before: I engaged in occasional, heavily intoxicated "consensual" encounters whenever he would get particularly forceful and refuse to back off and accept my attempts to avoid him. This in and of itself is an oxymoron seeing as an intoxicated individual cannot legally give consent to begin with. This was a severely misguided attempt on my part to feel some sense of control in a situation where I was powerless - and it did ultimately do more harm to my mental health than good - but it does not retroactively negate the fact that Kopf did in fact rape me and that none of his advances and none of our encounters were ever - even for a second - something I wanted or welcomed. I truly believed my safety and sanity depended on me blocking out the trauma and going along with what he wanted for the duration of the trip. Kopf, unbeknownst to me, filmed one of these encounters without my knowledge or consent. He later released edited audio and censored images of me from this video in retaliation after I finally spoke up publicly about him raping me. He did this via facebook in a now deleted post that the court ordered him to remove as it falls under the category of revenge porn, which is classified as harassment in the first degree and an aggrevated misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to two years in jail, and/or a fine of $625 to $6,250 in 46 states including the state Kopf posted it from.

I didn't begin opening up to people about what happened to me until about five months after I had returned from Japan. Unfortunately, many of the people I thought I could trust and rely on for support decided they were (and some still are) perfectly content with funding and enabling a serial rapist for the sake of having fun or making a profit at his conventions. So now, on top of the actual rape, I felt like I had nowhere to turn. I stopped talking to people about it.

Conventions lost their magic for me when I realized just how many people were willing to turn a blind eye to Kopf's abusive ways and continue frequenting his events. The community that had changed my life and made me finally feel accepted and welcome somewhere quickly became the community that made me feel more alone and isolated than I had ever felt in my life. About two years ago, I woke up to a message from one of my best friends, Amanda. She was one of the few that stuck by me after I started privately confiding in some of my con friends and fellow staffers about what Kopf had done to me. The DM contained a link and a message saying I "needed to see this." It was a public post made by Carissa Valentine calling out Kopf for sexually assaulting her. At this point I finally snapped. I'd already learned a lot about Kopf in the years since he had raped me and I knew there were at least some other victims out there, but the weight of just how many there really were hit me all at once at this moment. The reality crashed down on me and I began to internalize a great deal of self loathing.

Maybe if I'd said something some of these women could have been saved from sharing my trauma. How could my silence mean anything but complicity when I knew he was still out there doing these things with no one pushing back or standing in his way? And how could I be angry at people for attending his conventions when I myself couldn't find the strength to speak up? I began typing furiously, in a rage. Before I knew it I was clicking post and my truth was officially in the public domain and the #CancelKopf movement began. My post went viral in a matter of hours. I received vile threats and messages from his more exuberant fans and staff members as well as nasty and malicious posts made about me (I'm looking at you Erica C. Wise). I vividly remember one such comment that was written on another person's post regarding my accusations (I believe it may have actually been one of Kopf's). The guy suggested that they should all figure out my address, show up and "teach me what rape really is," before exercising their 2nd amendment rights. So basically these people now wanted to rape and murder me for being a victim and daring to say a word about it. What Kopf did to me - and all that has followed since - has irrevocably changed me as a person. I have since been diagnosed with C-PTSD and suffer from severe and chronic episodes of sleep paralysis and night terrors as a result of my trauma. Recently, however, I will say I've seen a positive shift in the con community. More people than ever before are speaking out and standing in solidarity with Kopf's victims with steadfast commitment. This gives me hope that someday - hopefully soon - the con community at large will come together to exile Kopf in favor of promoting and supporting safer conventions with more esteemable con chairs, owners, and staff. August: Crystal Hallenbeck officially quits on the final day of Liberty City Anime Con. Crystal brought her partner along for the first day of the convention in an effort to feel safe. She recalls that all of the con managers were tense because they all knew what had transpired at last year's convention. No one was giving Kopf any leeway, which appeared to visibly agitated him. On the second day he was scolded by one of the managers because he was consistently yelling at the staff. He was sent to his hotel room to cool off and he didn't make another appearance outside of conops or the green room.

Crystal had been watching him closely and passive aggressively mentioning in all meetings that sexual advances and harassment is unprofessional and wouldn't be tolerated. Her partner left on Saturday, and Crystal avoided Kopf any way she could for the rest of the convention. At the final wrap-up staff event she finally snapped and began yelling at Kopf and called him out in front of everyone about how he had been sexually harassing her for over a year and how he had been terribly unprofessional. As she was about to publically call him out for raping her, she became choked up and couldn't speak. After the convention was over, Crystal was asked to resign because "it seemed the convention was too draining on her." She replied that it was - but only because she had to work with her rapist. Crystal later found out that the only people that didn't know were his top right hand people, [REDACTED⁷] and [REDACTED⁸]. [REDACTED⁷] offered for her to continue doing the dance and the art, but she refused, citing that she was done supporting a rapist.

After leaving Liberty City Anime Con, Crystal bagan speaking up publicly about the assault, rape, and theft of her art. This has resulted in her often being yelled at and berated by others in the con scene for "ruining the Liberty City Anime Con name" and she has also received threats from Liberty City employees. Crystal had no choice but to stop working conventions due to this continued harassment. October: Kopf assaults Carissa Watson in Japan for a second time. On this particular trip, Kopf made sure that Jacob Lipman had his own room in a Japanese apartment, forcing Carissa to share a room with Kopf. She agreed to the arrangement since there was little choice other than the main room couch, and she had assumed he would leave her alone and be detered by the fact that she was in a relationship. Things were fine at first - until what she thought was just a little goofing around turned into him forcibly holding her down as she repeatedly told him to stop and let go. He continued to flirt and behave vulgarly towards her and she began to fear him. She decided to approach Lipman who said he would talk to Kopf. Late that night, Kopf got up close to Carissa and she felt him pull down her pants. She recalls hoping that what he was inserting was just his finger again. She says she was laying on her belly in the dark and couldn't really tell for certain as she's never engaged in sexual intercourse with a man. She's unsure how long it went on or what the sensations she was experiencing actually were. She froze. After Kopf was done, Carissa waited a bit before getting up to use the bathroom, then opted to sleep on the couch. She called her boyfriend at the time. He instructed her to go to the police, but as a foreigner in a country that has a reputation for not taking sexual assault seriously, she decided against it.

At this point Carissa told Lipman that she didn't want to sleep in the same room as Kopf anymore because he had assaulted her. He responded with indifference and offered no protection or help. Carissa's boyfriend at the time broke up with her shortly after, saying something along the lines of, "I told you so." Today Carissa has a wonderful and supportive wife by her side, helping her bare the weight of this trauma.

🚨 YEAR: 2017 -

February 12th: Kopf rapes Asha Khan-Snyder at Kanpai!Con. They say they told him they weren't interested in having sex with him. He pulled them aside, into a small room by the registration desk and asked if he could kiss them. They were in such shock that they didn't respond. By the time Asha realized what was going on, it was over. He handed them a plan B pill and sent them away. They realized at the beginning of March that they had missed their period. Asha took a pregnancy test and it was positive. Kopf sent them $600 to get an abortion with AnimeConOrg funds, from the AnimeConOrg account. We have screenshots of this transaction. Asha had their abortion on March 9th, 2017. These events led Asha to several months of dissociation and a mixed bipolar phase that greatly impacted their relationships.

August: Kopf rapes Noelle Barrett in New York City. Noelle was a volunteer worker for Liberty City Anime Con and had no direct contact with Kopf outside of an email from him regarding a staff meeting scheduled for about a week before the convention. While attending the post-con staff party, she was offered a rum and coke while grabbing a slice of pizza. Noelle made small talk with the person pouring her drink and then proceeded to wander around because she didn't really know anyone else there. Around 9pm (she recalls this time specifically because Game of Thrones was just about to start and someone had turned on the television to watch it) Noelle ended up upstairs and ran into the same women who had poured her previous drink. She offered to get Noelle another and she accepted. Due to being distracted by the television, she did not physically see her drink being mixed. She took her drink to a table and started talking about computers with a guy who was sitting at the table on his laptop. That's the last thing she can recall before she momentarily came to and discovered Kopf in the process of raping her while he used his phone to record it. He repeatedly asked her to verbally consent to the camera and laughed about using it as proof later.

The women who had poured both of Noelle's drinks earlier that evening was laying next to her, also exposed and watching. Noelle has never been able to successfully find out the woman's name. She fell unconscious again and the next thing she knew, she was awakened by her own crying in a hotel suite, completely alone. Noelle attempted to collect her belongings and go but couldn't find her bag. She decided to texted her roommates and they came up to help her look. At this point Noelle broke down crying again and told them what she could remember and they convinced her to go to hotel security, which she did. She recalls that the hotel's Head of Security was very professional and she told him everything. After their conversation, he proceeded to call the authorities. The police arrived and Noelle once again went through the events. Throughout the interview, the police repeatedly insinuating that maybe she had just blacked out due to drinking too much. She replied that with her weight and metabolism, she had never been anywhere near drunk enough to blackout. Much less after only a few rum and cokes.

The police stepped out of the room momentarily before returning to ask if she would come with them to a private room without her roommates (who had stayed with her the whole time) and in this private room she was asked to once again go through the events of the night and again she was forced to emphasize that she was not blackout drunk and that she had not even met Ryan in person prior to him raping her. Eventually the police escorted him out of the hotel and Noelle was taken to the hospital to have a rape kit done. Kopf was out of police custody before she had even completed this process. She has since been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of this trauma.

🚨 YEAR: 2019 - June: Anime Milwaukee bans Kopf following allegations of a sexual assault at AMKE 2018. I first get in touch with a lawyer and he takes our case against Kopf. September 12th: Circuit Court of Cook County orders Kopf to pay $8,700 in sanctions for his "manipulative and obstructive conduct" at his deposition. The judge also issues a protective order for his victims due to Kopf posting revenge porn of me. Kopf and all of his staff are no longer allowed to publicly speak on social media about any of his victim's allegations due to their continued attempts to intimidate, harass, and silence us.

🚨 YEAR: 2020 - August 5th: work on the case is halted due to the COVID-19 crisis.

🚨 YEAR: 2021 - April 28th: Kopf takes out a bizzare paid ad on facebook titled "proving you're not a pervert" just in time for the grand opening of his latest venture to capitalize on and exploit the nerd community - Fandoms Bar located in Davenport, Iowa. July 12th: A phone call with our lawyer and an associate of his confirms that all victims - current and future - are still actively protected under the court order even while the case is stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means we can directly accuse him and share our stories publicly and if Kopf or any of his staff says anything beyond a basic denial of the accusations in response (such as personal attacks or libelous statements against his victims) they will be in violation of said order and held in contempt of court. This protection also extends to any victims who have yet to come forward should they decide they want to speak up against Kopf.

🚨 IN CONCLUSION - What's more likely: that a bunch of people who don't know each other all collaborated and conspired against some mediocre fuck from Iowa to ruin his reputation with a plethora of fake rape accusations spanning the course of fifteen years OR that Ryan Kopf truly is a serial rapist who uses his conventions to exploit and abuse people?

We're always getting asked how it's possible for him to continue doing these things. The short answer is money. The long answer is you. All of you who continue to support him. All of you who continue to attend his events, perform as guests, and participate as vendors. You are all helping to fund his hunting ground whether you like it or not.

It's time we start holding each other - and ourselves - accountable. There's this undercurrent of victim blaming and acceptance of abhorrent behavior plaguing the con community. It's time to change that. Going forward we need to collectively start calling out the artists, musicians, vendors, guests, and cosplayers who continue to attend Kopf's conventions after this point. Enough is enough. No more excuses or justifications.

Time's up.

CancelKopf #MeToo

at least six additional victims have spoken up anonymously. No timeline info or details are known about these cases though, therefore I could not add them to the timeline. Undoubtedly there are even more out there who have yet to speak up