On Tuesday (Feb. 13), a former music video producer sued Russell Simmons for allegedly raping her when she worked for Def Jam Recordings in the late 1990s, according to Variety.
The woman was identified in the complaint as Jane Doe. “Ms. Doe rejected his advance and told him to ‘get off’ and ‘stop’ several times,” the lawsuit read. “She told him she was ‘serious’ and she ‘meant it.’ But Ms. Doe was forcefully pinned, could not move under his weight and Mr. Simmons would not listen to her.”
Doe’s lawyers Kenya Davis and Sigrid McCawley added that Simmons’ career was on the rise at the time and he harassed their her at work leading up to the assault. “She was proud of her contributions to the burgeoning musical genre of hip hop, but her hard work and her career in music was disrupted and derailed by Mr. Simmons, a rich and powerful celebrity whose wealth and influence allowed his abusive behavior to go unchallenged for decades,” they said. “Now a successful writer and producer in the entertainment industry, Jane Doe’s traumatic experiences with Simmons echo those of so many other women who he has preyed upon for decades.”