Music mogul L.A. Reid settles sexual assault lawsuit to avoid trail

January 13

On the day his civil trial was set to begin, the Grammy-winning music executive Antonio Reid, who is known as L.A., settled a lawsuit by a former employee who had accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

The former employee, Drew Dixon, was a music executive who worked for Mr. Reid at Arista Records in the early 2000s. She filed a lawsuit in 2023 that accused Mr. Reid of groping, kissing and digitally penetrating her without her consent on two occasions, once on his private plane en route to a companywide retreat in Puerto Rico and once in his car after a work event.

The lawsuit said that after Ms. Dixon, 55, rebuffed Mr. Reid, 69, on other occasions, he retaliated by reducing her promotional and recording budgets and rejecting song demos and artist auditions. As a result, the suit said, Ms. Dixon was unable to sign and cultivate new artists, such as John Legend and Kanye West.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed. It was announced on Monday, the day Mr. Reid’s trial was scheduled to begin in Manhattan.

Before Ms. Dixon’s lawsuit, Mr. Reid stepped down from his position as chairman of Epic Records after an assistant accused him of sexual harassment.

In recent years, Mr. Reid founded the label mega with Usher and was the executive producer on Mariah Carey’s 2025 album, “Here for It All.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/arts/music/la-reid-drew-dixon-settlement-sexual-assault.html