Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
In 2017, Russell Simmons stepped down from his businesses amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct throughout his years as a prominent figure in Hollywood. The explosive allegations forced several businesses and brands to sever business ties with the music mogul and ultimately resulted in lawsuits for damages.
However, over the last two years, Simmons has maintained his innocence, even submitting to his own lie detector test results to prove he’d never had non-consensual sex with anyone. But now, the co-founder of Def Jam is taking his defense a step further, in providing a sworn declaration under penalty of perjury.
Simmons’ declaration, which became public this week, came as part of Jane Doe’s civil suit, in which she claimed Simmons raped her and threatened her son after a rap concert in 1988. In the suit, according to Complex, Doe demanded $10 million in punitive damages, but after months of legal back and forth -complete with claims of avoiding having to deny the allegations, Simmons filed the declaration and a motion for summary judgment, where he reiterated the fact that Doe’s claims are beyond the statute of limitations.
“I am horrified at the false allegations made against me in the complaint,” Simmons said in the declaration. “I do not know and I have never heard of Plaintiff. Her allegations that I committed sexual battery and threatened to rape her son is absurd, shameful, and untrue. I have never had nonconsensual sex with Plaintiff or anyone else.”
Elsewhere, Simmons, via his lawyer, claimed Doe’s allegations are “false and salacious fiction…nothing more than a calculated scheme by Plaintiff to tell a lie so big and so scandalous that it would attract news coverage (as it has) in hopes that Mr. Simmons would pay her money to make it disappear (as he has not, and will not.)”
As he continued, Simmons highlighted Doe’s financial issues, in which she filed bankruptcy and also pleaded guilty to prostitution. “In short, Plaintiff has no corroboration or credibility in what we believe to be an effort to publicly extort Mr. Simmons,” his lawyer added.
However, in the meantime, there is still no warrant for Simmons arrest and most of the allegations are, in fact, outside of the statute of limitations. But, with Simmons’ new declaration, he can be on the hook for perjury, if his declaration proves to be false. But for now, he maintains his innocence.
