Music honcho L.A. Reid settles with ex-recording executive who accused him of sexual assault

(Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Grammy award-winning music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid reached a settlement Monday with a former record company executive who alleged in a lawsuit that he sexually assaulted her and ruined her career. The terms of Reid’s settlement with Drew Dixon were not made public. Smiling with her family and lawyers outside court, Dixon said, “I’m excited to get back to making music.” She called the litigation an “arduous process.” Her mother, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Sharon Pratt, called it an “excruciating journey.”

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Dixon worked for Reid when he was Arista’s chief executive. She alleged that he sexually assaulted her twice in 2001 and later cut her budget and sidelined artists when she rebuffed his continuing advances. Dixon left Arista in 2002 and contends that her “meteoric trajectory” in the music business was cut short by Reid’s harassment. Musicians John Legend and Aku Orraca-Tetteh and recording executive Roy Lott were among the witnesses who had been set to testify on Dixon’s behalf, according to her lawyer, Kenya Davis.


Reid left Epic Records in 2017 after a former female assistant accused him of sexual harassment.

Dixon sued Reid in 2023 under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act, which had provided sex abuse accusers a one-year window to sue even if the statute of limitations has passed. “I hope my work as an advocate for the Adult Survivors Act helps to bring all of us closer to a music business that is safer for everyone,” Dixon told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan. “And in a world where good news is often hard to find, I hope that survivors today see a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”

link to article: https://apnews.com/article/la-reid-dawn-dixon-sexual-assault-harassment-acd04873f5e8de5cc768acdbb87f9b53