"That same day, the Los Angeles Times reports that Russell Simmons and director Brett Ratner are accused of teaming up to allegedly sexually harass and assault women. One of the alleged victims, Keri Claussen Khalighi, claimed that when she was a 17-year-old fashion model she met then up-and-coming video director and Simmons protege Ratner at a casting call. After dinner one night in 1991, she said the pair took her back to Simmons’ apartment, ostensibly to show her a music video they had been working on, only to have Simmons make aggressive sexual advances on her and tear off her clothes. “I looked over at Brett and said ‘help me’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face,” she told the newspaper. “In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together.” Khalighi added that after Simmons tried to force her to have intercourse she “fought… wildly,” at which point the music mogul coerced her to perform oral sex, then briefly penetrating her without consent as she was taking a shower. Simmons strongly disputed Khalighi’s account in a statement claiming, “Everything that occurred between Keri and me occurred with her full consent and participation.” Khalighi said that she encountered Simmons last year at an event where he delivered a “touching, remorseful apology” for his behavior."