Russell Simmons Civil Assault Lawsuit Dismissed

Last year a Jane Doe accuser claiming she had been rxped by Russell Simmons while working at Def Jam was able to serve him at his private resort in Bali with notice of her civil lawsuit [click here if you missed that].

Now the case has been dismissed because of Russell's stateless status...

From All Hip Hop

A federal judge dismissed a sixual assault lawsuit filed by a Jane Doe against the Hip-Hop mogul, ruling that Simmons is a “stateless” American citizen, making it impossible for the court to claim jurisdiction over him.

The suit was part of a larger wave of litigation enabled by New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which briefly lifted the statute of limitations for adult survivors of sixual abuse.

However, Simmons’ legal team argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because he has lived in Indonesia since 2018.

Judge John G. Koeltl sided with Simmons, ruling that the plaintiff failed to prove that he was domiciled in New York at the time of the complaint. The dismissal boiled down to a jurisdictional technicality.

Since Simmons no longer claims residence in any U.S. state and has been living in Indonesia under a permanent retirement visa since 2021, the judge ruled that he falls outside the court’s jurisdiction.

The judge noted that Simmons sold his New York apartment in 2021, has lived in multiple residences in Indonesia and possesses an Indonesian driver’s license.

The court was not persuaded by Jane Doe’s argument that Simmons’ social media posts, business ties and occasional visits to New York meant he was still legally domiciled in the U.S.