When he was accused of rape last year, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons requested that the judge dismiss the case. Now, he will have to fight the charges in court, as the judge has denied his dismissal request and the case will move forward. According to a report from The Blast, he now has until the end of the month to respond to the allegations.
Toward the end of 2017, Russell Simmons stepped down from his leadership positions in his companies when he was initially accused of rape by a former model who said in a Los Angeles Times report that he raped her during an encounter in 1991. Shortly after, three more women came forward with similar accusations, which Simmons denied in a statement. While he eventually ended his ill-advised #NotMe social media campaign when it failed to gain any traction online, he did request for the the case to be dismissed on the grounds that his accuser didn’t provide specific dates of the alleged incident.
However, that wasn’t enough in the judge’s opinion to throw the case out, as “the elements of the three claims (forcible rape, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress) do not require a date of the incident.” The hearing is set for next month.
