L.A. Reid Sued for Sexual Assault and Harassment by Music Producer Drew Dixon
The music producer, entrepreneur, and former music executive Drew Dixon has filed a lawsuit against L.A. Reid, the powerful music executive and former X Factor judge, for sexual assault and harassment. Dixon claims that her career was ruined by two sexual assaults: one by Russell Simmons, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit and has denied the claim before; and another by Reid, who, according to the lawsuit, “sexually harassed Ms. Dixon and prevented her from succeeding unless she gave in to his demand to be alone and near her, where he would create the chance to sexually assault her on two separate occasions.” L.A. Reid’s representatives did not answer Pitchfork’s requests for comment right away.
Dixon was vice president of A&R at Arista Records under then-CEO Clive Davis before the alleged assault. She says that Reid sexually assaulted her twice shortly after he took over from Davis in 2000, when Dixon was 29. She claims that the first assault happened on a private plane to a company retreat in Puerto Rico. Reid had told her that other executives would join them, she says, but they were actually alone in the cabin. The lawsuit says, “He asked her to sit next to him to review materials for the presentation, and then he started to touch her hair, kiss her and penetrated her vulva with his fingers without her consent.” Dixon “was in a shock for the rest of the flight,” the lawsuit says, and stayed with her assistant at the retreat, choosing to take a commercial flight back.
Dixon says she tried to stay away from Reid “without angering or offending him” but faced retaliation in the form of disrespect and unprofessional behavior. She says she finally agreed to listen to a potential artist in Reid’s car, knowing there would be a driver and that she would have a hard time getting Reid’s approval of her artists otherwise. During the drive, the lawsuit says, Reid “started to fondle and kiss” Dixon as she “wriggled and pushed him off.” The lawsuit says, “When Mr. Reid whined and got visibly annoyed with her lack of cooperation, Ms. Dixon froze. Mr. Reid penetrated Ms. Dixon’s vulva with his fingers again without her consent.” When Dixon rejected Reid on later occasions, he sabotaged her career, including chances with Kanye West and a young John Legend, by cutting or freezing budgets and turning down demoes and artist auditions, the lawsuit says. His actions, the lawsuit says, cost Dixon millions of dollars, and also destroyed careers of “undeveloped artists that Ms. Dixon tried to promote while avoiding Reid’s abuse.”
Dixon said in a statement through her lawyer, “L.A. Reid is a notorious predator, who uses his unique professional power to coerce his victims. In my case, his relentless campaign of sexual harassment and assault made me leave the work I loved when I was at the peak of my game in the music business, after working my way up from internships and a job as a receptionist.”
Dixon kept working in the music industry after leaving Arista in 2002, and helped with songs like “American Boy” by Estelle and Kanye West. However, she says Reid’s abuse and misconduct slowed down her momentum and opportunities. In 2017, Reid left Epic Records, where he had been CEO, after anonymous claims of sexual harassment.
Dixon, who first accused Russell Simmons of rape in 2017, and repeated the claim in a 2020 documentary, sued Reid under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which opened a one-year window for civil lawsuits involving historic sexual offenses, as long as the plaintiff was over 18 when the alleged abuse happened. Dixon had campaigned for that law, and added in her statement, “I joined a group of courageous survivors to fight for the passage of the Adult Survivors Act.”