LOS ANGELES » The former drummer of the alternative rock band Cake maintains his innocence, and his attorney has filed a notice of appeal after he was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for molesting a 3-year-old girl during a Thanksgiving party five years ago.

Relatives of 48-year-old Peter Ivan McNeal said in a statement released Thursday that they stand with him and called his conviction a "gross failure of justice."

In 2013, jurors found McNeal guilty of oral copulation of a child under 10. He was sentenced Tuesday.

Prosecutors said McNeal molested the girl at a Thanksgiving party in Laurel Canyon, where he was a guest.

Cake, which formed in Sacramento, rose to fame with its 1996 hit "The Distance." McNeal was in the band from 2001 to 2005.