Ever since allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood bigwig Harvey Weinstein, surfaced in October, plenty of other victims have come forward with similar stories regarding other powerful men in the music and film industry. Recently, director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, Tove Heist) has faced similar allegations from six different women (including Olivia Munn, Natasha Henstridge and Jamie Ray Newman). Now in a report from the Los Angeles Times, Ratner’s one-time mentor, Russell Simmons is being accused of sexual misconduct as well.
In the report, model Keri Claussen Khalighi claims that after a casting call with Simmons and Ratner in 1991 (when she was 17 years old), the two men took her out for dinner and then invited her back to Simmons’ apartment under the pretense that they wanted to show her a music video they had been working on. According to Khalighi, Simmons became aggressive as soon as she entered his apartment, trying to coerce her into sex. The report states that she looked at Ratner and “said ‘help me’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face.”
She claims that in that moment she realized the two had been working together to force her into the situation. While she claims she was able to get Simmons to relent on sexual intercourse, she alleges he did coerce her into giving him oral sex. After leaving the room to shower, she alleges that Simmons approached her from behind and penetrated her without her consent. She managed to get away from him and leave the bathroom.
According to Khalighi, when she ran into Simmons last year he apologized for the incident. Khaligh claims she gave both men a warning about her plans to share the story, to which Simmons profusely apologized and brought up the fact that he is a father to two children. Ratner also apologized and owned up to the incident according to the model: “He said he was young and stupid and blinded by Russell’s sway over him.”
Following the public claims by Khalighi, Simmons has released a statement emphatically denying the allegations that he forced himself on the young model. He claims that all interactions between Khalighi and himself were consensual and he claims that most of their time spent together during those two days in 1991 was in public. He stated that he was only sorry for the, “context for the embarrassment and upheaval the weekend caused her” related to her “infidelity.” Meanwhile, Ratner claims that he never saw her protest and does not remember her asking for help.
Simmons is most well known for being the co-founder of Def Jam Records, which has played a vital role in the careers of artists like Iggy Azalea, Logic, Big Sean, Kanye West, Afrojack, Jeremih, Ludacris, Alesso, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J, among others. Simmons oversaw Ratner on several music video shoots in the 90s and served as a sort of mentor to the young filmmaker. Part of that relationship stemmed from Ratner’s ability to provide Simmons with models — according to an excerpt from his book “Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success,” Simmons stated about Ratner: “After he hung around a bit and figured out that I liked models, then he made it his business to take me to every model’s apartment he could find.” Ratner also concedes this is how their relationship began in an introduction he wrote for the book “Def Jam”: it was “based on our mutual admiration for beautiful women.”
During the Times’ investigation into the matter between Simmons, Ratner and Khalighi, they discovered that Ratner and Simmons had previously been investigated by the Beverly Hills Police Department in 2001. In that alleged incident, a 29 year old women claimed that two men held her against her will and was “unlawfully touched.” The District Attorney of Los Angeles decided not to file charges due to insufficient evidence.
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