A former Arista and Def Jam music executive who accused Russell Simmons of sexual assault has now filed a similar lawsuit against another music mogul.
In the complaint filed in a Manhattan Federal District Court on Nov. 8, Drew Dixon, 53, alleges that L.A. Reid twice assaulted her in the early 2000s.
According to The New York Times, Dixon filed the lawsuit under the New York Adult Survivors Act, a new law that allows a one-year window for civil lawsuits from accusers who were over 18 at the time of an alleged assault. That one year ends on Nov. 24.
Dixon claims that 67-year-old Reid first assaulted her in 2001 during a company trip to Puerto Rico on a private plane. He was the head of Artista Records at the time and Dixon was the vice president of A&R. She claims that once she arrived on the plane, she found that no other employees were on the flight. She alleges Reid asked her to sit next to him so that they could go over their presentation.
“He began playing with her hair, kissing her and digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent,” states the lawsuit. Dixon reportedly spent the remainder of the flight “in a daze.” Once they landed, she stayed in her assistant’s hotel room that evening despite having her own room. She took a commercial flight home from the trip.
The lawsuit also states that Dixon tried to avoid Reid after the first assault even after he invited her “night after night” to accompany him to his room at the Manhattan Four Seasons. She said she consulted a life coach about how to avoid Reid while doing her job and told them about the assault. The complaint claims that Reid “retaliated against her by embarrassing her in front of others or otherwise being curt and unprofessional” after she refused his advances.
“Promotional and recording budgets were suddenly reduced dramatically or frozen altogether. Song demos and artist auditions were flatly rejected,” Dixon explained. “It was very clear that I was being punished because I would not comply.”
She said that the same year in 2001, she made “a mistake” when she accepted a ride home from Reid in a chauffeured car, and he assaulted her again. She added that the pattern of “resistance and retaliation” continued until she left the company to attend Harvard Business School in 2002 after realizing “Mr. Reid would continue to stifle her career.”
Dixon previously worked for Simmons at Def Jam Records and claimed in 2017 that he raped her in 1995. Three other women also accused Simmons of rape. Dixon’s lawsuit against Reid mentions Simmons but does not name him as a defendant.
Simmons denied the accusations back in 2017, and Dixon says she is still considering her legal options when it comes to Simmons. Her recollection of working with Simmons and her assault was detailed in the 2020 documentary “On the Record.” Dixon said that Simmons lured her to his apartment to listen to a demo, and he came out of the bathroom naked wearing nothing but a condom and violently raped her.
She left the company to work for Clive Davis at Artista, but after Reid took over, he “almost immediately” began “sexualizing and harassing” her.
“I have an opportunity now to seek some degree of accountability,” said Dixon. “And that’s really what I’m trying to do.”
Dixon says it was “devastating” losing her music career, and her attorney, Kenya K. Davis, said that her career was “under siege” by Reid. Reid reportedly apologized in 2017 if his words to Dixon were “misinterpreted” but did not comment on her accusations.
“When you’re talking about someone’s career being under siege, there is this dance that happens — her trying to make sure that she doesn’t completely alienate him, but she does not want to succumb to being assaulted,” said Davis. “He was relentless. And in defying him, she paid the price.”
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