Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons has announced that he’s stepping away from multiple enterprises in light of new sexual misconduct accusations.* Simmons had previously been accused of assault and harassment by model Keri Claussen Khalighi, an accusation he denied in a Hollywood Reporter column, writing that his encounter with Khalighi was consensual and that “my longtime loathing of any form of violence and abuse has been woven into all of my personal interactions, as most who know me will attest.”
On Thursday, however, another accuser spoke out against Simmons: Jenny Lumet, a screenwriter and daughter of filmmaker Sidney Lumet. In her own Hollywood Reporter guest column, Lumet describes an encounter in 1991, when she says Simmons offered to give her a ride home. But according to Lumet, when she gave her address to the driver, Simmons insisted on taking her back to his apartment instead: “I couldn’t open the doors. I couldn’t open the windows. The car was moving. The driver did not stop.”
Once at Simmons’ apartment, Lumet writes:
You used your size to maneuver me, quickly, into the elevator. I said “Wait. Wait.” I felt dread. I was very, very sad. I didn’t know if the driver was a further threat, or an ally. I was both relieved and terrified when he did not get into the elevator. Alone in the elevator, you pressed me into the corner with your body, your hands and your mouth.
[…]
There was penetration. At one point you were only semi-erect and appeared frustrated. Angry? I remember being afraid that you would deem that my fault and become violent. I did not know if you were angry, but I was afraid that you were.
[…]
When it was over, I got my clothes and quickly went down in the elevator by myself. You didn’t try to stop me. I went home in a taxi. I was grateful to be secure in my home. I never told anyone this story until October 27th of this year (after the Harvey Weinstein story was in the news, but weeks before the first public claims were made against you), when I told a girlfriend from childhood.
Simmons responded with a statement of his own, explaining that he will remove himself from the businesses he founded and start a non-profit for “learning and healing”:
I have been informed with great anguish of Jenny Lumet’s recollection about our night together in 1991. I know Jenny and her family and have seen her several times over the years since the evening she described. While her memory of that evening is very different from mine, it is now clear to me that her feelings of fear and intimidation are real. While I have never been violent, I have been thoughtless and insensitive in some of my relationships over many decades and I sincerely apologize.
This is a time of great transition. The voices of the voiceless, those who have been hurt or shamed, deserve and need to be heard. As the corridors of power inevitably make way for a new generation, I don’t want to be a distraction so I am removing myself from the businesses that I founded. The companies will now be run by a new and diverse generation of extraordinary executives who are moving the culture and consciousness forward. I will convert the studio for yogic science into a not-for-profit center of learning and healing. As for me, I will step aside and commit myself to continuing my personal growth, spiritual learning and above all to listening.
Correction, Dec. 1: This post originally misstated that Simmons was stepping down from Def Jam. Simmons sold his shares in the company in 1998.
