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Music Executive L.A. Reid Is Accused of Sexual Assault in Lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed by Drew Dixon in federal court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, says that Mr. Reid’s misconduct cut short her career in music.
The Grammy-winning music executive Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A. and rose in the industry working with artists including Usher and TLC, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment in a lawsuit by Drew Dixon, who worked for Mr. Reid at Arista Records.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, says that Mr. Reid, who was Ms. Dixon’s boss starting in mid-2000, assaulted her twice. When she successfully rebuffed him on other occasions, the suit says, he retaliated against her, blocking her ability to sign or cultivate artists, like a young John Legend. She left the company in 2002, and though she made forays into the industry again, she never fully recovered her promising trajectory as a music tastemaker.
Stepping back from a music career “was devastating,” Ms. Dixon, who facilitated the recording of a platinum soundtrack and several hit singles, said in an interview. “I have an opportunity now to seek some degree of accountability. And that’s really what I’m trying to do.”
Mr. Reid did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday. Representatives for Mr. Reid’s latest venture, mega, a music collective formed this year in partnership with Usher, said that they did not represent Mr. Reid personally and had no comment on the matter but that they had passed the request to his office. HarperCollins, which published his memoir, “Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next,” in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Joel Katz, a prominent entertainment industry lawyer who has worked with Mr. Reid in the past.
Mr. Reid, 67, has won three Grammys and appeared as a judge on “The X Factor” in a career of more than three decades. In 2017, he stepped down as chairman of Epic Records after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment. He went on to co-found another record label, HitCo, which counted Jennifer Lopez on its roster; the company was sold last year to the Concord Music Group.
Ms. Dixon’s complaint falls under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law enacted last year that opened a one-year window for civil lawsuits from anybody who was older than 18 when they say that abuse occurred. Ms. Dixon, 53, was an advocate for the law. The look-back window closes on Nov. 24.
The lawsuit, filed by Drew Dixon in federal court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, says that Mr. Reid’s misconduct cut short her career in music.
L.A. Reid is accused of twice assaulting Drew Dixon, who was a vice president at Arista Records when he was president
The Grammy-winning music executive Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A. and rose in the industry working with artists including Usher and TLC, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment in a lawsuit by Drew Dixon, who worked for Mr. Reid at Arista Records.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, says that Mr. Reid, who was Ms. Dixon’s boss starting in mid-2000, assaulted her twice. When she successfully rebuffed him on other occasions, the suit says, he retaliated against her, blocking her ability to sign or cultivate artists, like a young John Legend. She left the company in 2002, and though she made forays into the industry again, she never fully recovered her promising trajectory as a music tastemaker.
Stepping back from a music career “was devastating,” Ms. Dixon, who facilitated the recording of a platinum soundtrack and several hit singles, said in an interview. “I have an opportunity now to seek some degree of accountability. And that’s really what I’m trying to do.”
Mr. Reid did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday. Representatives for Mr. Reid’s latest venture, mega, a music collective formed this year in partnership with Usher, said that they did not represent Mr. Reid personally and had no comment on the matter but that they had passed the request to his office. HarperCollins, which published his memoir, “Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next,” in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Joel Katz, a prominent entertainment industry lawyer who has worked with Mr. Reid in the past.
Mr. Reid, 67, has won three Grammys and appeared as a judge on “The X Factor” in a career of more than three decades. In 2017, he stepped down as chairman of Epic Records after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment. He went on to co-found another record label, HitCo, which counted Jennifer Lopez on its roster; the company was sold last year to the Concord Music Group.
Ms. Dixon’s complaint falls under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law enacted last year that opened a one-year window for civil lawsuits from anybody who was older than 18 when they say that abuse occurred. Ms. Dixon, 53, was an advocate for the law. The look-back window closes on Nov. 24.
Ms. Dixon was involved with a number of notable songs at Arista, including Whitney Houston’s “My Love Is Your Love” and the Carlos Santana hit “Maria Maria.”
Ms. Dixon first spoke out in 2017, when she was one of three women who accused the music mogul Russell Simmons of rape in an article in The New York Times. (In a statement, he said, “I vehemently deny all these allegations.”) Ms. Dixon, who had worked with Mr. Simmons at his Def Jam label, which was among the first to bring hip-hop to the mainstream, repeated her accusations in the 2020 documentary “On the Record.” Her lawsuit against Mr. Reid states that Mr. Simmons raped her in 1995 but does not name Mr. Simmons as a defendant. Ms. Dixon said in an interview that she was still evaluating her legal options when it comes to Mr. Simmons. Mr. Simmons has denied Ms. Dixon’s and other accusers’ accusations in several settings, and told The Times in 2017 that “all of my relations have been consensual.”
Ms. Dixon left Def Jam and got a job at Arista, where she worked with the company’s founder, Clive Davis, and rose to become vice president of A&R. She was involved with a number of notable songs, including Whitney Houston’s “My Love Is Your Love” and “It’s Not Right but It’s Okay,” and the Carlos Santana hit “Maria Maria.”
In 2000, Mr. Reid, a founder of the influential Atlanta label LaFace, replaced Mr. Davis as president of Arista. Ms. Dixon said that their relationship, which had been professional and cordial when they knew each other as industry colleagues, changed quickly. “Almost immediately,” the suit says, he began “sexualizing and harassing” Ms. Dixon, then 29.
In January 2001, the suit says, Arista held a companywide retreat in Puerto Rico. Ms. Dixon was invited to fly alongside Mr. Reid and other executives on a private plane, then arrived and discovered that no other passengers were onboard. Mr. Reid, the complaint says, “asked her to sit next to him to go over materials for the presentation, and then he began playing with her hair, kissing her and digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent.” She spent the rest of the flight “in a daze,” the complaint says. Though the company had booked her a hotel room, she shared her assistant’s, and traveled home on a commercial flight.
Ms. Dixon then took pains to avoid being alone with Mr. Reid, who invited her to meetings in his room at the Four Seasons in Manhattan “night after night,” the suit says. She spoke with a life coach, to whom she disclosed the assault, about how to evade him while also maintaining her job; she was eager to keep her position not only for professional reasons but because a recent cancer diagnosis made her fear losing her health insurance, the suit says.
The lawsuit, filed by Drew Dixon in federal court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, says that Mr. Reid’s misconduct cut short her career in music.
The Grammy-winning music executive Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A. and rose in the industry working with artists including Usher and TLC, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment in a lawsuit by Drew Dixon, who worked for Mr. Reid at Arista Records.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, says that Mr. Reid, who was Ms. Dixon’s boss starting in mid-2000, assaulted her twice. When she successfully rebuffed him on other occasions, the suit says, he retaliated against her, blocking her ability to sign or cultivate artists, like a young John Legend. She left the company in 2002, and though she made forays into the industry again, she never fully recovered her promising trajectory as a music tastemaker.
Stepping back from a music career “was devastating,” Ms. Dixon, who facilitated the recording of a platinum soundtrack and several hit singles, said in an interview. “I have an opportunity now to seek some degree of accountability. And that’s really what I’m trying to do.”
Mr. Reid did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday. Representatives for Mr. Reid’s latest venture, mega, a music collective formed this year in partnership with Usher, said that they did not represent Mr. Reid personally and had no comment on the matter but that they had passed the request to his office. HarperCollins, which published his memoir, “Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next,” in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Joel Katz, a prominent entertainment industry lawyer who has worked with Mr. Reid in the past.
Mr. Reid, 67, has won three Grammys and appeared as a judge on “The X Factor” in a career of more than three decades. In 2017, he stepped down as chairman of Epic Records after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment. He went on to co-found another record label, HitCo, which counted Jennifer Lopez on its roster; the company was sold last year to the Concord Music Group.
Ms. Dixon’s complaint falls under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law enacted last year that opened a one-year window for civil lawsuits from anybody who was older than 18 when they say that abuse occurred. Ms. Dixon, 53, was an advocate for the law. The look-back window closes on Nov. 24.
The lawsuit, filed by Drew Dixon in federal court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, says that Mr. Reid’s misconduct cut short her career in music.
L.A. Reid is accused of twice assaulting Drew Dixon, who was a vice president at Arista Records when he was president
The Grammy-winning music executive Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A. and rose in the industry working with artists including Usher and TLC, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment in a lawsuit by Drew Dixon, who worked for Mr. Reid at Arista Records.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, says that Mr. Reid, who was Ms. Dixon’s boss starting in mid-2000, assaulted her twice. When she successfully rebuffed him on other occasions, the suit says, he retaliated against her, blocking her ability to sign or cultivate artists, like a young John Legend. She left the company in 2002, and though she made forays into the industry again, she never fully recovered her promising trajectory as a music tastemaker.
Stepping back from a music career “was devastating,” Ms. Dixon, who facilitated the recording of a platinum soundtrack and several hit singles, said in an interview. “I have an opportunity now to seek some degree of accountability. And that’s really what I’m trying to do.”
Mr. Reid did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday. Representatives for Mr. Reid’s latest venture, mega, a music collective formed this year in partnership with Usher, said that they did not represent Mr. Reid personally and had no comment on the matter but that they had passed the request to his office. HarperCollins, which published his memoir, “Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next,” in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Joel Katz, a prominent entertainment industry lawyer who has worked with Mr. Reid in the past.
Mr. Reid, 67, has won three Grammys and appeared as a judge on “The X Factor” in a career of more than three decades. In 2017, he stepped down as chairman of Epic Records after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment. He went on to co-found another record label, HitCo, which counted Jennifer Lopez on its roster; the company was sold last year to the Concord Music Group.
Ms. Dixon’s complaint falls under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law enacted last year that opened a one-year window for civil lawsuits from anybody who was older than 18 when they say that abuse occurred. Ms. Dixon, 53, was an advocate for the law. The look-back window closes on Nov. 24.
Ms. Dixon was involved with a number of notable songs at Arista, including Whitney Houston’s “My Love Is Your Love” and the Carlos Santana hit “Maria Maria.”
Ms. Dixon first spoke out in 2017, when she was one of three women who accused the music mogul Russell Simmons of rape in an article in The New York Times. (In a statement, he said, “I vehemently deny all these allegations.”) Ms. Dixon, who had worked with Mr. Simmons at his Def Jam label, which was among the first to bring hip-hop to the mainstream, repeated her accusations in the 2020 documentary “On the Record.” Her lawsuit against Mr. Reid states that Mr. Simmons raped her in 1995 but does not name Mr. Simmons as a defendant. Ms. Dixon said in an interview that she was still evaluating her legal options when it comes to Mr. Simmons. Mr. Simmons has denied Ms. Dixon’s and other accusers’ accusations in several settings, and told The Times in 2017 that “all of my relations have been consensual.”
Ms. Dixon left Def Jam and got a job at Arista, where she worked with the company’s founder, Clive Davis, and rose to become vice president of A&R. She was involved with a number of notable songs, including Whitney Houston’s “My Love Is Your Love” and “It’s Not Right but It’s Okay,” and the Carlos Santana hit “Maria Maria.”
In 2000, Mr. Reid, a founder of the influential Atlanta label LaFace, replaced Mr. Davis as president of Arista. Ms. Dixon said that their relationship, which had been professional and cordial when they knew each other as industry colleagues, changed quickly. “Almost immediately,” the suit says, he began “sexualizing and harassing” Ms. Dixon, then 29.
In January 2001, the suit says, Arista held a companywide retreat in Puerto Rico. Ms. Dixon was invited to fly alongside Mr. Reid and other executives on a private plane, then arrived and discovered that no other passengers were onboard. Mr. Reid, the complaint says, “asked her to sit next to him to go over materials for the presentation, and then he began playing with her hair, kissing her and digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent.” She spent the rest of the flight “in a daze,” the complaint says. Though the company had booked her a hotel room, she shared her assistant’s, and traveled home on a commercial flight.
Ms. Dixon then took pains to avoid being alone with Mr. Reid, who invited her to meetings in his room at the Four Seasons in Manhattan “night after night,” the suit says. She spoke with a life coach, to whom she disclosed the assault, about how to evade him while also maintaining her job; she was eager to keep her position not only for professional reasons but because a recent cancer diagnosis made her fear losing her health insurance, the suit says.
