Russell Simmons Denies Assault Allegations + Terry Crews Puts Him on Blast

According to a new report, a woman has accused Russell Simmons of s*xually assaulting her when she was 17 years old.

Keri Claussen Khaligh was a fashion model when she met Simmons.

The LA Times writes:

Keri Claussen Khalighi was a 17-year-old fashion model from a farm town in Nebraska when she met Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons at a casting call.

Ratner was an up-and-coming music video director and a protege of Simmons, the Def Jam Recordings mogul. They took Khalighi to dinner one night in 1991 at Mr. Chow in New York, and then back to Simmons’ apartment to show her a music video they’d been working on.

Quickly, Simmons began making aggressive s*xual advances, yanking off her clothes, Khalighi said.

“I looked over at Brett and said ‘help me’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face,” she recalled. “In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together.”

Khalighi said that Simmons, who was then about twice her age, tried to force her to have intercourse. “I fought it wildly,” she said. He eventually relented and coerced her to perform oral s*x, she alleged. “I guess I just acquiesced.”

Ratner, meanwhile, “just sat there and watched,” she said.

Feeling “disgusting,” Khalighi said she went to take a shower. Minutes later, she alleged, Simmons walked up behind her in the shower and briefly penetrated her without her consent. She said she jerked away, then he left. “It hurt so much.”

Russell has responded to the allegations on Instagram:

Wake up to struggle ❤️ The yogi learns to smile and breathe in every pose. The long weekend in question 26 years ago had many witnesses, the L.A. Times never used some of the their signed written statements that she spent the night, had lunch with, and went to clubs with multiple witnesses and even stayed in my apartment when I wasn’t there, all after alleged incident. I provided 3 witness statements, maybe they could have been used in the article?

A post shared by Russell Simmons (@unclerush) on Nov 19, 2017 at 6:56am PST

Actor Terry Crews also tweeted the following:

Message Russell Simmons sent to me regarding my sexual assault case against Adam Venit of @WME:

Dear @UncleRUSH——
NO ONE GETS A PASS pic.twitter.com/DmEvqWVxkc

— terrycrews (@terrycrews) November 19, 2017