In November 1990, Alexia Norton Jones went out on the town with Russell Simmons. She says that they had a lovely night out, which ended with Def Jam Records co-founder welcoming her to see his new crib in downtown Manhattan. There, Jones says, Simmons stuck her against a divider and assaulted her. “It was such a fast attack,” she shared with Variety. “He pulled my dress up. I must have said no seven to 10 times.”
After she cleared out, troubled and stunned, Jones alleges that Simmons kept on pursuing her, calling her at home and moving toward her at get-togethers. Jones, a 31-year-old rising model and performing artist at the time, is the granddaughter of book distributor W.W. Norton. She and Simmons were in the same clique. Moreover, Simmons is a friend of Jones’ dad, Clarence Jones, who had filled in as a lawyer and speech specialist for Martin Luther King Jr. After a few years had passed, Jones pardoned Simmons.
About three decades later, Jones documented a police report with the NYPD last Spring. Although her case is passed the statutory limit in New York, she just wanted to support the other accusers who were sexually abused by the mogul and music producer.
More than a dozen women have blamed Simmons for rape or assault (a portion of these stories were revealed by examinations from The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times). Simmons, who has denied any bad behavior, ventured down from his organizations in November, after a guest column was published in The Hollywood Reporter by the screenwriter Jenny Lumet, in which she asserted that he sexually attacked her in 1991.
