A Timeline of Russell Simmons’ Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Russell Simmons is once again facing sexual assault allegations.

A former Def Jam video producer filed a complaint to New York Federal Court on Feb. 12, coming forward with claims of rape and sexual assault that took place back in the 1990s. The woman, who filed her complaint under “Jane Doe” to protect her identity, detailed the “devastating” experiences with the music mogul that led to her career being “derailed.” Doe alleged that she was raped in the late ’90s by Simmons at his Manhattan apartment when she visited him at his residence to receive approval for a video.

Russell Simmons has been named the perpetrator in a number of other sexual assault-related lawsuits in recent years. Since the 2017 allegations, multiple women have come forward recounting similar experiences with the Def Jam Records co-founder. Since then, he has maintained his innocence and also claimed to have passed “nine lie detector tests.”

He said in an episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger at the time, “When someone said, for instance, ‘I was violent’ — one person said that — and I’ve never been violent. Took that. And one said I apologized. I never apologized about assaulting anyone. But if two people say it, because one said it, and #metoo, and the second person said it, then I took a test for it.”

See below for a full timeline of sexual assault allegations against Simmons, stemming back to November 2017, when the first of many victims came forward with claims of misconduct.