Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons is once again facing a lawsuit from a former employee who says he raped her at his Manhattan apartment in the 1990s.
The accuser, who has been identified only as Jane Doe, originally brought the suit against Simmons last year.
Last month, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge due to jurisdiction issues, after Simmons claimed he is a "stateless" citizen living in Indonesia at a resort in Bali he co-owns.
Earlier on Thursday the Jane Doe plaintiff refiled her complaint, which has been seen by The Independent, in a New York state court. The earlier suit had been filed in federal court, but Judge John Koeltl sided with Simmons and dismissed the suit on the basis it didn’t involve parties in different US states.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, the Jane Doe plaintiff said: “For me, his accountability is the paramount reason I filed the case, for Russell to accept he was wrong, that he caused pain.
“Forced sex is against the law. Stop saying the rules are different now; it was wrong then too. I thought the justice system would hold him accountable, and here we are talking about jurisdiction, and I’m watching this legal gamesmanship he plays to avoid it. It just makes me want to push harder.”
According to the legal filing, Doe took on a job as an executive at Def Jam in the 1990s, which involved being responsible for all film production.
She says she routinely went to Simmons’s apartment to conduct business, as was normal at the time for all label employees.
“It was a very casual environment for everyone,” the complaint states.
On the day of the alleged assault, she delivered a rough cut of a video to Simmons’s apartment. He began allegedly flirting with the woman and making sexual advances, including asking whether she was wearing a bra.
The complaint states that Simmons proceeded to ask the woman if she would have sex with him. She said she would not. Simmons continued to push the subject, according to the records. He began to “wrestle” her, initially attempting to appear playful, before pinning the woman down and raping her, the documents state.
The woman left the label in 1997, after the incident happened. She did not tell anyone about the alleged abuse for weeks and experienced severe dissociation, depression and anxiety.
The Independent has approached Simmons’s legal team for comment.
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