The co-founder of Def Jam Recordings makes the move through his legal representative two months after demanding $35K from the woman who claimed to have been sexually harassed by him.
- November 9, 2018
AceShowbiz - Rap mogul Russell Simmons has officially accused a woman who filed rape charges against him of extortion.
Simmons is hoping to have the charges dismissed entirely, with his legal representative calling them "nothing more than an attempt by Jane Doe to extort large sums of money from Mr. Simmons and for her lawyer to try to make a name for himself," according to documents obtained by The Blast on Thursday, November 08.
In August, the star demanded $35,000 (£27,200) from the woman who filed the claim against him, based on an alleged incident in 1988. She alleged he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room after she attended a concert with her son.
In a court statement, obtained by the news outlet, Simmons calls the allegations "outrageous and fictional", accusing the unnamed woman of trying to "extort a settlement" out of him. He has asked the judge to sanction his accuser and her lawyer.
The woman is seeking $10 million (£7.8 million) in damages.
Simmons has been embroiled in several other sex assault scandals since over the last year (17) - at least a dozen women have accused him of misconduct. In July, the New York Times detailed accounts from a string of accusers, including a woman named Alexia Norton Jones, who claimed the rap mogul attacked her at his apartment after a date, screenwriter Jenny Lumet, model Keri Claussen and others, who described incidents of lewd behaviour dating back to the early 1990s.
Last November (17), he announced he was stepping down as the head of several media ventures in the wake of the accusations.
