Ex-Assistant Accuses Record Exec of Sex Assault

LA Reid sued for alleged sexual assault and harassment
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 9, 2023 12:00 AM CST
Hitmaker LA Reid Accused of Sexually Assaulting Ex-Assistant
LA Reid poses in the press room at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, May 18, 2014.   (Photo by Eric Jamison/Invision/AP, File)

Influential music exec Antonio "LA" Reid is being sued for allegedly sexually assaulting and harassing one of his former employees, then later discriminating against her because she'd rejected his advances. Drew Dixon worked for the Grammy-winning producer and onetime X Factor judge in the early 2000s, and she says Reid assaulted her two times and that she rejected multiple other advances before he blocked her from signing or cultivating artists at his company, which she left in 2002, the New York Times reports. She says her career in the music industry never recovered. Reid, 67, has not commented; nor have representatives from his many ventures, the publisher of his memoir, or a lawyer who's worked with him.

This is not, however, the first allegation lobbed against him; after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment in 2017, he left Epic Records, where he'd been chairman, to co-found another record label. Dixon, who was also one of three women to accuse music mogul Russell Simmons of rape in 2017, is suing under the New York Adult Survivors Act, which last year opened a one-year window for anyone who was sexually abused as an adult to file a civil lawsuit in the matter. Dixon has not sued Simmons, who denies her allegation that he raped her in 1995, and says she is still weighing her legal options in that case. She says Reid's alleged conduct cost her millions in lost income, Billboard reports. See the Times' full article for more details of her accusations. (More LA Reid stories.)

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