Musician Sherri Hines is speaking out about the time she said music mogul Russell Simmons sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s when she was just 18.
On the set of “Today” with Megyn Kelly on Tuesday, Hines said the attack happened in Simmons’ office where she had gone to discuss her all-female rap group Mercedes Ladies.
“He told me to sit down, then he sat down next to me,” she said. “Next thing I’m being pinned down and I’m like, ‘No, get off of me, what are you doing?’ and he’s still pinning me down and I am still trying to maneuver and get out of it.”
“It happened so fast, the next thing I know, my pants were down and he is having his way,” she added. “When he finished, I ran out of there and I left and I was crying and I stood at the elevator for what looked like forever, and I couldn’t believe I was just violated like that. I felt embarrassed. I felt used, worthless.”
Hines appeared on set with a second Simmons accuser, Natashia Williams-Blatch.
In a statement, Simmons denied all the charges leveled against him.
“I vehemently deny all these allegations. These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all of my relations have been consensual,” he told TheWrap. “The presumption of innocent until proven guilty must not be replaced by “Guilty by Accusation.”
It’s not the first time Megyn Kelly has hosted women who have accused Simmons of sexual misconduct. Last month she welcomed Keri Claussen Khalighi to the set to tell her story as well.
Khalighi said that Simmons had privately apologized to her for what she said was a sexual assault that took place in 1991 when she was 17.
“What he’s speaking about privately with me is completely different than what’s come out publicly,” Khalighi said. “That’s the piece that’s been really, really upsetting, disappointing and quite honestly just repugnant with the hypocrisy and the lies and the denial.”
The news has only gotten worse for Simmons in recent days. Last week the New York Times published three additional accounts of women accusing him of rape.