A judge says Russell Simmons can be sued for rape in New York by a former Def Jam executive, even though he now lives in Indonesia.
A Tuesday (June 16) order in New York state court, first obtained and reported by Billboard, rejects Simmons’ latest attempt to dismiss the civil lawsuit alleging he raped an anonymous executive in Def Jam’s music video department in the 1990s. Simmons, who has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women over the last decade, has denied all wrongdoing.
The former Def Jam employee, suing under the pseudonym Jane Doe, originally brought her claims against Simmons in federal court in 2024. She suffered a setback last year when a federal judge said Simmons, who has lived in Indonesia since 2018, was outside the court’s jurisdiction. She persisted and re-filed the lawsuit in state court — and on Tuesday, Judge Adam Silvera said New York law allows the claims to move forward despite Simmons’ expat status.
“The complaint alleges the defendant committed the tort of rape in New York state,” wrote the judge. “[In New York], a court may exercise personal jurisdiction over any non-domiciliary who commits a tortious act within the state, except as to a cause of action for defamation. Therefore, the complaint survives the motion to dismiss stage.”
In addition to their arguments about Indonesia, Simmons’ lawyers also argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Jane Doe released all possible claims against the Def Jam founder as part of a severance agreement with the label in 1997.
However, Doe’s attorneys say that purported release is a “sham” and that her signature was forged. Judge Silvera determined on Tuesday that there’s a “genuine dispute as to its authenticity,” meaning he’ll need to see evidence before deciding whether the document is enforceable.
Related
Simmons and Doe will now begin discovery, where they will exchange evidence and depose each other’s witnesses. The judge set a court conference for August to hammer out a calendar for this often-lengthy process.
Doe’s lawyers at the firm Boies Schiller & Flexner declined to comment on the ruling on Wednesday (June 17). Simmons’ rep did not immediately return a request for comment.
Simmons, who founded Def Jam Recordings in 1984 and built a formidable hip-hop empire, first faced sexual abuse allegations in a New York Times investigation from 2017. More women came forward in the 2020 HBO documentary On The Record, and legal claims followed.
Doe’s lawsuit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for rape claims. She alleged that Simmons pinned her to a bed and raped her while she was at his apartment to get approval for a music video.
Simmons has settled with at least seven other women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct in recent years. Many of these accusers have since filed court petitions claiming he’s millions of dollars short on promised settlement payments.
Simmons has maintained that the abuse claims are all false. In a motion to dismiss the Doe lawsuit, his attorneys wrote, “Defendant hopes to vindicate himself to the many who have judged him unfairly, for many years, on the untrue and unproven allegations of others.”
Last June, Simmons went on the offensive and sued HBO for defamation over On The Record. He claimed the sexual assault accusations in the documentary were false, and that its producers ignored exculpatory information that would have cleared his name. That case is still pending.
