L.A. Reid Accused of Sexual Assault by Former Music Executive in New Lawsuit

Former music executive Drew Dixon claims that Reid’s misconduct cut her career short

Antonio L.A. Reid is being sued for sexual assault in a new lawsuit.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Manhattan’s Federal District Court, Drew Dixon, a former music executive, accused the Grammy-winning label executive and X Factor judge, 67, of sexual assault and harassment.

According to documents obtained by PEOPLE, Dixon, 51, alleges her career was "derailed" when she was sexually assaulted by two of her supervisors. After the first aleeged assault, she claims she landed a role at Arista Records where Reid was aware of the incident.

Dixon claims that Reid prevented her from furthering her career "unless she acquiesced to his demand to be alone and in close proximity to her, where he would create the opportunity to sexually assault her on two separate occasions," per the lawsuit.

Related: L.A. Reid: 5 Things to Know About the 'X Factor' Judge

The plaintiff claims that "any time she rebuffed him, some of the world’s most renowned talent paid the price of career stalls." Dixon also alleges Reid thwarted career opportunities for her, which led to missed opportunities for working with artists like John Legend, "which cost her millions of dollars."

Dixon alleges that almost immediately after starting at Arista Records in 2000, Reid began sexually harassing her.

In 2001, after being told she would be joining a group of senior executives on a private flight to a company-wide retreat in Puerto Rico, she ended up on a plane with Reid alone where she claims he sexually assaulted her.

A few months later, the plaintiff alleges she was sexually assaulted by Reid while he was giving her a ride home after a work event in New York City.

Dixon left Arista in 2002 to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School, convinced she wouldn't be able to continue her career in the music industry "without being sexualized." While the plaintiff has attempted over the years to re-establish herself, she claims she's still grappling with Reid's retaliation decades later.

PEOPLE reached out to Joel Katz, an entertainment lawyer who previously worked with Reid in the past, as well as Harper Collins, which published his 2016 book Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next. Those representatives did not immediately reply to PEOPLE's request for comment.

In a 2017 investigation conducted by The New York Times, Dixon also claimed she was sexually assaulted by Russell Simmons. She alleges that the Def Jam cofounder, 66, "brutally raped" her in 1995, despite not being identified as the defendant.

In the story, Simmons denied the allegations and claimed that all of his relations had been consensual.

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Related: Russell Simmons Sexual Assault Accusers Reveal How Life Has Changed Since Speaking Out

In 2020, Dixon opened up to PEOPLE about the relentless harassment, which she claims ultimately led to a violent sexual assault in his apartment in 1995.

"This was my dream job," she said of working for Simmons. "I was reporting to literally the king of hip-hop. I didn't want to blow it." But, she adds, "I didn't want to be a rape victim."

Dixon said that his advances originally "started out as verbal," but escalated.

"The night it happened, Russell knew exactly what to say: 'I want you to hear this demo. You’re going to love it,'" she told PEOPLE. "He grabbed me. He was naked, and he was fighting me. I resisted in every way that a person can resist. I was like, 'Please, I'm begging you.'"

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Read the original article on People.