Having fled the U.S. over allegations of sexual misconduct, Russell Simmons quickly sold multiple assets last summer – including his home in West Hollywood.
Not exactly a picture of innocence, is it?
He currently lives in Indonesia.
For over a year, the Def Jam cofounder and hip-hop mogul has remained the subject of multiple sexual assault allegations from different women.
In a recently-revealed sworn declaration under penalty of perjury, Simmons attempted to clear his name last month.
“I am horrified at the false allegations made against me in the Complaint. I do not know and I have never heard of Plaintiff. Her allegation that I committed sexual battery and threatened to rape her son is absurd, shameful, and untrue. I have never had non-consensual sex with Plaintiff or anyone else.”
The declaration came to light once Simmons successfully petitioned a judge to hold a summary judgment hearing on August 15th. The hearing will now take place six months earlier than expected.
Last year, a female hip-hop concertgoer – dubbed ‘Jane Doe’ to protect her identity – filed a lawsuit against the once-influential mogul. At a rap concert, Simmons allegedly invited the woman and her son backstage. Then, after the pair attended an afterparty, he invited her to his hotel room. Simmons had apparently forgotten something. Once there, Simmons allegedly threatened her, violently threw her on the bed, and raped her.
The $10 million lawsuit eventually revealed the date of the rape – 1988, during the height of the hip-hop mogul’s fame.
Filing a motion for summary judgment in his favor, Simmons called Jane Doe’s story a “false and salacious fiction… nothing more than a calculated scheme by Plaintiff to tell a lie so big and so scandalous that it would attract news coverage (as it has) in the hopes that Mr. Simmons would pay her money to make it disappear (as he has not, and will not).”
Keep in mind that if all of the allegations from the different women are false, then, Simmons had little reason to ‘liquidate’ his assets in the U.S.
Another explanation, however, is that Simmons was merely fleeing a toxic environment, one that made it impossible to function in America.
Simmons’ summary judgment memo claims that Jane Doe can’t make sexual battery claims. The statute of limitations has already passed in California.
Lambasting the unidentified woman, Simmons’ attorneys also filed paperwork demonstrating she once filed for bankruptcy. She had also pled guilty to prostitution charges.
Simmons’ attorney, Patricia Glaser, wrote,
“In short, Plaintiff has no corroboration or credibility in what we believe to be an effort to publicly extort Mr. Simmons.”
Stating the now-disgraced hip-hop mogul hasn’t actually denied raping Jane Doe, the woman’s attorney, Douglas Mastroianni, fired back.
“[Simmons] seeks both legal protection for the rape he doesn’t deny and to collect nearly $40,000 from the plaintiff.
“In fact, there is no evidence in the record of when defendant raped the plaintiff. The reason for this obvious: Defendant would have to submit a declaration stating when he met plaintiff, thus, admitting that they had met. He would then be expected to deny that he sexually assaulted plaintiff which would subject him to perjury charges and probably could not be ethically submitted by his lawyer to the court.”
Mastroianni claimed that if Simmons was actually innocent, he should have filed a motion for summary judgment, which the mogul quickly did. He took the bait, which could ultimately lead to a disastrous loss for the mogul in court.
Slamming the mogul’s decision to move to Indonesia, a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S., Mastroianni added that Simmons fled as an “apparent attempt to protect himself from arrest and criminal prosecution.”
He fled because how the system is messing over r Kelly. Now days u can claims false claims on people and get away with it . I think he’s scared because the system will always try to drag our black successful men. My prayers to Russell and r kelly
My heart goes out to people like mr. Simmons who work hard and just because you have money the lies come and destroy you….Why didn’t she say something then because she probably thought her sex was good enough to win him over but it was only a wham bam thank you maam!!!!
I really can’t speak to Russell Simmons situation, I am hopeful he will be vindicated if indeed he is innocent of the allegations. To group him in with R. Kelly as some part of some systemic degradation against black men is disingenuous. There is more than enough information of years of alleged abuse by Kell’s for decades. Being successful and black does not make you susceptible to the muck of the system nor does it hide inherent flaws.
Partly true. However, many of these men like Russell Simmons, thought they could do and say what these white men have been doing for years and expect to get away with it. The White man will never except you no matter how ‘large’ you are living. You are nothing to them. They will chew you up and spit you out, when they fill you are no longer linning their pockets with money. When they fill you have gotten too much power, with their women and business’, they pull you down and destroy everything. You are never innocent until proven guilty in this country. You are guilty because you are black.
You’re right and Bill Cosby .,, I don’t blame him! Rich black successful men better take notes from Russell
The devil came to collect……
Word
Protecting people based on race is trite and works for no-one.
To date there are at least five (5) claims of abuse against Simmons who has liquidated his assets and fled to Indonesia where there is no extradition to the US.
Maybe he is innocent. But if you want to claim this, at least address facts.
I”m white and I know the persecution of black men is a real thing. It’s not that famous black men, or famous men in general, may not push the boundaries when dealing with women, (who are ALWAYS throwing themselves legs open to rich and famous men, this isn’t in dispute except by delusional feminazis). THe issue is that black men are HELD TO ACCOUNT while white men, like Mr Trump, are NOT. THAT is the issue, so observers are MORE THAN JUSTIFIED in pointing out that race plays a factor here, because it is true that it does, for whatever reasons.
That said, I hope the MeToo movement has taught many jurisdictions there needs to be a statute of limitations on rape claims. This sh*t is just getting flat out ridiculous. People are generally only going after the famous because money is involved. There aren’t many poor men with women coming out of the woodwork saying he raped me, even if they may have.
This female-feminazi-driven society has hit a wall, and it’s gonna stop. Sure, Republican white males are the last old guard, but their time is near over, and when it ends, the courts are going to have to go to a true reality, where people prove shit with rape kits, and not their words.
Running to Bali a country that doesn’t have any extradition. Now I know why, because if you are innocent you would have never left America for a no extradition country. Russell has enough money for an attorney to help defend himself if he’s innocent,..