*Russell Simmons faces renewed legal scrutiny from a former Def Jam employee who claims he raped her in his New York apartment in the mid-1990s.
Rolling Stone reports in the new legal documents, the woman, known as Jane Doe, is urging a judge to dismiss Simmons’ argument that he is beyond New York’s jurisdiction after he was granted a retirement visa by Indonesian authorities. Russell reportedly cited his “stateless” status to avoid a deposition in the U.S.
EUR’s Chris Richburg reported earlier that the 66-year-old Def Jam Recordings co-founder faces accusations of avoiding answering questions under oath as part of a sexual harassment lawsuit. Doe sued Simmons in February under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. According to The Blast, she accuses Simmons of raping her at his apartment during her stint as a staff member at Def Jam. Jane Doe wants Simmons to attend a deposition via Zoom and answer questions under oath about the lawsuit.
Simmons has not answered any questions that could help move the case forward. The accuser believes a deposition would “obviate the need for his answering the interrogatories.”
“This lawsuit chronicles the account of how a woman who, while pursuing her career passion as a music executive, was sexually harassed, assaulted, sexually battered, and raped by her boss, Russell Simmons,” Jane Doe explained in the lawsuit.
“Defendant is running from the court’s jurisdiction to avoid taking accountability for his actions,” the plaintiff stated in a new filing.
According to Doe, Simmons continues to cover the costs of a Manhattan apartment for his children and keeps an office in New York. She argues that his ongoing business affairs in the U.S. contradict his alleged retirement status, which is required for his Indonesian visa.
“Any purported retirement visa requires recertification every few years that one is, in fact, retired. Building an empire and being retired are mutually exclusive,” Doe wrote in her Nov. 1 filing, per Complex.
Doe’s new filing also points to remarks Simmons made in a 2024 interview with AllHipHop, where he described America as his “home.”
“People saying that I somehow can’t come home when I’m there all the time wears on you,” Simmons told AllHipHop at the time. “It wears on me after a while to keep hearing the same narrative, which is false. I’m always in L.A., I’m always in New York and Miami. And I’ve never had any reason to feel unsafe in America.”
Jane Doe is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged sexual assault.
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