L.A. Reid Asks Court To Dismiss Multiple Counts In Sexual Assault Case

L.A. Reid, co-founder of Hitco Entertainment and executive for labels such as Epic Records and Arista Records, is asking a court to dismiss multiple counts in Drew Dixon’s sexual assault case against him. Dixon, the same woman who accused Russell Simmons of sexual assault in 2017, filed her claims in November 2023, which include sexual battery/assault (Count I), false imprisonment (Count II), intentional infliction of emotional distress (Count III) and gender motivated violence act (Count IV).

In court docs obtained by AllHipHop, Reid’s attorneys—Bobbi C. Sternheim and Shawn Holley—are asking Honorable Valerie E. Caproni of the United States District Court in New York to dismiss Counts II and III of Dixon’s complaint, strike certain statutory references in Count I and grant such other and further relief deemed “just and proper.”

Dixon’s complaint stems from two incidents: one in January 2001 and another that allegedly occurred several months later that same year. Dixon alleges “ongoing sexual harassment and career sabotage.” She’s using the New York Adult Survivors Act (“ASA”) and the New York City Gender Motivated Violence Act (“GMVA”) to advance time-barred claims. Each of those laws revive the statute of limitations to permit civil actions related to certain sexual offenses.

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Dixon’s allegations of sexual abuse fall within those laws, but Reid’s legal team believes she’s using those laws to “springboard claims of career frustration and disappointment for which there are no timely or cognizable causes of action.” They believe she’s taking “inappropriate advantage of specially enacted laws as ‘catch-all’ alternatives for causes of action which cannot stand on their own and are too late to assert.”

The first incident of alleged misconduct occurred in flight, aboard a jet which had departed from Teterboro Airport, in the District of New Jersey. The second incident of alleged misconduct occurred in a chauffeur-driven automobile in New York City en route to Dixon’s home. Reid’s attorneys argue Dixon has never claimed she was forced, intimidated or deceived into boarding the plane to travel to a company retreat or to accept a ride to her home, adding, “She was not compelled to go along for either ride against her will.” It’s unclear whether the alleged conduct occurred in the Southern or Eastern District of New York, therefore Reid’s lawyers want Count II dismissed for failure to allege proper venue. As for Reid’s attorneys’ motion to dismiss claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, they say, “The allegations in the complaint, though undoubtedly unprofessional, distasteful, and improper, do not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous behavior required for an IIED claim in New York.” Elsewhere in Dixon’s suit, she alleges there were two occasions of “fondling… beneath… clothes” and “digital penetration of v#### without consent.” Reid’s attorneys say Dixon failed to state a cause of action in support of the following 10 PL sections in Count I that “contain elements that are not alleged in or supported by the complaint and are not applicable to a competent adult plaintiff.”

Dixon claims Reid assaulted her twice while she was working at Arista in 2001. She says he groped, kissed and penetrated her without her consent on a company trip and during a ride home from an event in New York. She also accuses Reid of stalling her career after the alleged assaults.