L.A. Reid in Washington, DC in December 2018.Photo:Brian Stukes/WireImage
Brian Stukes/WireImage
Antonio L.A. Reidis being sued for sexual assault in a new lawsuit.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Manhattan’s Federal District Court,Drew Dixon, a former music executive, accused the Grammy-winning label executive andX Factorjudge, 67, of sexual assault and harassment.
Dixon claims that Reid prevented her from furthering her career “unless she acquiesced to his demand to be alone and in close proximity to her, where he would create the opportunity to sexually assault her on two separate occasions,” per the lawsuit.
The plaintiff claims that “any time she rebuffed him, some of the world’s most renowned talent paid the price of career stalls.” Dixon also alleges Reid thwarted career opportunities for her, which led to missed opportunities for working with artists likeJohn Legend, “which cost her millions of dollars.”
Dixon alleges that almost immediately after starting at Arista Records in 2000, Reid began sexually harassing her.
In 2001, after being told she would be joining a group of senior executives on a private flight to a company-wide retreat in Puerto Rico, she ended up on a plane with Reid alone where she claims he sexually assaulted her.
Dixon left Arista in 2002 to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School, convinced she wouldn’t be able to continue her career in the music industry “without being sexualized.” While the plaintiff has attempted over the years to re-establish herself, she claims she’s still grappling with Reid’s retaliation decades later.
PEOPLE reached out to Joel Katz, an entertainment lawyer who previously worked with Reid in the past, as well as Harper Collins, which published his 2016 bookSing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next. Those representatives did not immediately reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
In the story, Simmons denied the allegations and claimed that all of his relations had been consensual.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
L.A. Reid.Denise Truscello/Getty
Denise Truscello/Getty
In 2020, Dixonopened up to PEOPLEabout the relentless harassment, which she claims ultimately led to a violent sexual assault in his apartment in 1995.
“This was my dream job,” she said of working for Simmons. “I was reporting to literally the king of hip-hop. I didn’t want to blow it.” But, she adds, “I didn’t want to be a rape victim.”
Dixon said that his advances originally “started out as verbal,” but escalated.
“The night it happened, Russell knew exactly what to say: ‘I want you to hear this demo. You’re going to love it,'” shetold PEOPLE.“He grabbed me. He was naked, and he was fighting me. I resisted in every way that a person can resist. I was like, ‘Please, I’m begging you.'”
source: people.com
