Recently the LA Times reported that fashion model Keri Claussen Khalighi at 17 years old alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Russell Simmons as she met Brett Ratner and Russell Simmon on a casting call.
Ratner was an up-and-coming music video director and a protégé of Simmons. 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 sexual advances, yanking off her clothes, Khalighi alleges “I looked over at Brett and said ‘help me and I’ll never forget the look on his face. In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together.”
Khalighi said that Simmons, tried to force her to have intercourse. “I fought it wildly, He eventually relented and coerced her to perform oral sex, she alleged. I guess I just acquiesced.”
Khalighi says Ratner, meanwhile, “just sat there and watched.”
Russell Simmons recently responded to these allegations in this statement.
Statement of Russell Simmons in Response to LA Times Article. pic.twitter.com/iwT7Wy3SoY
— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) November 19, 2017
