Russell Simmons Accused Of Sexual Assault By Four More Women
Four more women have come forward to accuse music producer Russell Simmons of sexual assault.
In a new report in The New York Times, former Def Jam Records employee Drew Dixon, former music journalist Tonie Sallie, and performer Tina Baker allege that Simmons raped them in encounters that spanned from 1988 to 2014. In a report published Wednesday in The Los Angeles Times, performer Sherri Hines alleged that Simmons raped her around 1983.
Also, four more women are coming forward with allegations of sexual misconduct from Simmons. In The Los Angeles Times, actress Natashia Williams-Blach, massage therapist Erin Beattie, and two former Tantris employees detailed inappropriate behavior from the music mogul, including groping, inappropriate conversations, and forced kissing. These latest additions make 10 women who have gone on the record with accusations of against Simmons.
These are only the latest accusers to come forward about inappropriate behavior from Simmons: In mid-November The Los Angeles Times reported that model Keri Claussen Khalighi had accused Simmons of sexual assault and harassment, a claim he denied. In late November, Jenny Lumet penned an essay for The Hollywood Reporter claiming that Simmons had assaulted her in his apartment after a long acquaintance in 1991, when she was 24 years old.
“I don’t recall ever meeting any of the women who have spoken out against you, Russell. But I can’t leave those women twisting in the wind. Maybe the recalling of this incident can be helpful. I don’t know if it can,” Lumet wrote.
“I have re-dedicated myself to spiritual learning, healing and working on behalf of the communities to which I have devoted my life. I have accepted that I can and should get dirt on my sleeves if it means witnessing the birth of a new consciousness about women,” Simmons said in a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday. “What I will not accept is responsibility for what I have not done. I have conducted my life with a message of peace and love. Although I have been candid about how I have lived in books and interviews detailing my flaws, I will relentlessly fight against any untruthful character assassination that paints me as a man of violence.”
Dixon, a former executive at Def Jam Records, alleges Simmons would speak graphically about how Dixon aroused him, asked her to sit on his lap, exposed himself to her, and raped her in his Manhattan apartment. In 1995, Dixon was leaving the Bowery Bar near Simmons’ apartment and ran into him. While waiting for a cab that the record producer had called for her, she entered his apartment. Once there, Dixon claims Simmons advanced on her, pinned her on his bed, and began to kiss her. She then said she found herself in a bathtub with Simmons, both of them naked, though she doesn’t recall how she got there. She said she had not been drinking and doesn’t think she was drugged, but rather disassociated from the experience.
In 1987, music journalist Sallie met Simmons while on assignment. They went on a number of dates before Sallie broke it off. Months later, Simmons invited her to his apartment for a party. Once there, Sallie found Simmons alone. The record producer then escorted her to his bedroom where he pushed her on the bed, jumped on her, and “physically attacked” her.
Singer Tina Baker, who Simmons managed in the early 1990s, also alleged that Simmons raped her. She ran into Simmons at a club where he invited her back to his apartment to go over her career. Once they arrived, Simmons began pouring her drinks and trying to kiss her. Baker claims he was “on top of me, pushing me down and him saying, ‘Don’t fight me.’ “ She said she “did nothing, I shut my eyes and waited for it to end.”
Hines, part of the all female hip hop group Mercedes Ladies in the 1980s, claims Simmons raped her in his office in the early 80s. When she was 17 or 18, she ran into Simmons, who she had known from her childhood, at a New York nightclub. He invited her to his nearby offices where they sat together on a couch and he proceeded to pin her down. She fought him off and “left crying.” She later based an encounter in her 2008 novel, Mercedes Ladies, on the alleged incident.
This article originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.