Overview
- A New York state judge denied Russell Simmons’s motion to dismiss the civil rape suit and held that state courts can exercise personal jurisdiction because the alleged tort occurred in New York.
- The anonymous plaintiff, identified as a former Def Jam video executive, says Simmons raped her in his Manhattan apartment in the 1990s and refiled in state court after a federal judge dismissed her 2024 case for lack of jurisdiction.
- Simmons argued the suit was time‑barred, that a 1997 release barred the claim, and that his residency in Indonesia put him outside New York’s reach; the judge rejected all three defenses at this stage.
- The judge found a factual dispute over the alleged 1997 release, including the plaintiff’s claim her signature was forged, and said that dispute alone made dismissal inappropriate now.
- A preliminary conference is set for August 13 and the case will move into discovery; the matter arrives against a wider background of more than 20 public accusations against Simmons and multiple settlement disputes that he denies.