A $5 million lawsuit brought against Russell Simmons by aspiring filmmaker Jennifer Jarosik has been dismissed, according to court papers filed Wednesday and obtained by TheWrap.
According to the papers, the suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be filed again at a later date.
“Mr. Simmons is hereby dismissed with prejudice from this action in its entirety including all claims asserted by Ms. Jarosik in the operative complaint,” the court papers read. “The Parties shall bear their own attorney’s fees and costs in this matter.”
Jarosik, an aspiring documentary producer, filed suit against Simmons in January, saying that Simmons raped Jarosik at his Los Angeles home in August 2016. Jarosik sued for sexual assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Simmons denied the accusations, and in a court filing earlier this month his legal team said that Jarosik suffered from “untreated mental issues.”
“In various court proceedings over the past six years, Ms. Jarosik has been found by a court: (1) to have a ‘propensity to exaggerate’; (2) to suffer from ‘untreated mental health issues,’ and (3) to be ‘unfit to properly parent’ her young son,” Simmons’ answer to Jarosik’s complaint reads. “Those very same qualities are evident in Ms. Jarosik’s Complaint, which is filled with lies against Mr. Simmons, who has only ever tried to help her. Mr. Simmons has never had non-consensual sex with Ms. Jarosik or anyone else.”
It is unclear whether a settlement agreement was involved in the dismissal. A representative for Simmons declined to comment. TheWrap has also reached out to Jarosik’s lawyer for comment.
In March, Simmons was sued for at least $10 million by an anonymous woman who alleges that Simmons threatened her son, then raped her. Court papers filed earlier this month contain correspondence between Simmons’ attorney and the accuser’s lawyer, in which Simmons’ attorney called the suit “nothing more than an attempted extortion by using the most vile false allegation possible — that of child abuse.”
“Simply put, your client and her story are not credible and her motivation for a payday are abundantly clear,” the correspondence reads.
Simmons, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women, has denied the accusations in a statement provided to TheWrap, saying, “I vehemently deny all the allegations made against me. They have shocked me to my core as I have never been abusive or violent in any way in my relations with women. I have submitted myself to multiple lie detector tests. I denied forced sex and sexual harassment allegations brought against me in each test; I also answered no to the question, ‘Have you ever physically forced any woman to have sexual intercourse?’ I passed all of the lie detector tests.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.