The Grammy-winning music executive LA Reid settled a lawsuit by a former employee who accused him of sexual assault and harassment, on the day the civil trial was due to begin.
In 2023, Drew Dixon alleged that the former Arista Records chief executive born Antonio Reid – who helped develop Mariah Carey, TLC, Pink and Usher – derailed her career after she rejected his advances in 2021. Dixon said that he groped, kissed and digitally penetrated her without consent on two occasions.
She alleged that Reid had started harassing her soon after he started at Arista in 2000. When she rejected his advances, she said that her promising career was thwarted by having her budgets slashed and her proposed signings rejected. Reid subsequently denied the allegations.
She quit in 2002 to attend Harvard Business School, and said in a 2023 statement provided by her lawyers that Reid’s “persistent campaign of sexual harassment and assault forced me to abandon the work I loved when I was at the top of my game in the music business”.
Reid left Arista in 2004 to work as CEO at Island Def Jam Music Group, and later Epic Records. In 2017, Reid stepped down from Epic following a harassment claim from a female member of staff, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
Dixon, now a board member at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, sued under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act, which in 2023 gave adults a year-long window to sue over alleged sexual abuses that occurred outside of the statute of limitations.
Details of the settlement between Reid and Dixon were not disclosed, but both parties released statements on the resolution.
Dixon said: “I hope my work as an advocate for the Adult Survivors Act helps to bring us closer to a safer music business for everyone. In a world where good news is often hard to find, I hope for survivors that today is a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”
Imran H Ansari, a lawyer for Reid, said: “Mr Reid has amicably resolved this matter with Ms Dixon without any admission of liability.”
Previously Dixon was one of three women who accused Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons of rape. She appeared in the 2020 documentary On the Record, about the women making allegations against the music executive. More than 20 women have accused Simmons of sexual assault, allegations he has consistently denied.
