\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tWendy Franco, Sherri Abernathy and Sil Lai Abrams in New York in August.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Dana Scruggs for Rolling Stone<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tMeanwhile, Simmons has gone on the attack in response to allegations against him. This summer, he filed a defamation suit against HBO and<\/a> Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, <\/strong>the filmmakers who produced On the Record,<\/em> a 2020 documentary featuring interviews with several Simmons accusers. (Simmons\u2019 lawyer claimed \u201ccredible information, persuasive evidence, [and] witness statements\u201d supporting Simmons were \u201cdisregarded\u201d in the making of the film. HBO\u2019s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement to Rolling Stone <\/em>that the lawsuit \u201clacks both merit and substance\u201d and that they \u201cstand behind the documentary.\u201d The suit is ongoing.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tThe settlement papers with Franco, Abrams, and Abernathy do not detail specific accusations \u2014 like Franco\u2019s, the other two settlements reflect that \u201c[t]he Settlement Amount constitutes a payment for damages for Claimant\u2019s alleged personal, physical injuries and sickness\u201d \u2014 nor does Simmons admit wrongdoing in the settlements, which state that his payment does not imply \u201cany admission of liability, fault, or wrongdoing.\u201d Sallie and Jones\u2019 settlements also state that the agreements do not admit any liability of wrongdoing, nor specify exact allegations.<\/p>\n \n\tIn interviews with Rolling Stone <\/em>prior to the resolution,<\/em> Franco, Abrams, and Abernathy largely described Simmons\u2019 apparent delay in payment as another emotional blow in the already-arduous process of legal action against him. His nonpayment, which spanned more than a year at the time of these interviews, felt like another trauma.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was devastating,\u201d Franco said in an April interview with Rolling Stone<\/em>, before the resolution. \u201cI just felt so stupid that I thought this person would follow through, that I thought that someone who could do what he did would turn around and acknowledge me and make some type of amends. You exposed yourself to this, and now this person again shows you that it doesn\u2019t matter to him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSimmons has said that \u201cI own no property in the United States,\u201d and has cried poverty in filings. His legal team, in a defamation suit filed by former music-industry executive Drew Dixon, who accused him of rape<\/a> in 2017, said in September that he owes them more than $100,000 in fees. (Simmons has denied Dixon\u2019s claims.) The attorneys also said that Simmons is unable to pay a $15,000 penalty imposed by the court on his legal team for missing a scheduled court hearing.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cYou exposed yourself to this, and now this person again shows you it doesn\u2019t matter to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Wendy Franco<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tDixon\u2019s lawyer, Kenya Davis, shot back that Simmons has money, urging a New York judge to ignore Simmons\u2019 \u201cpalpably false and self-serving claims of poverty.\u201d Davis said that Simmons has a 75 percent stake in the Gdas resort and noted his \u201congoing partnership with and ownership interest\u201d in a Singapore-based talent agency.<\/p>\n \n\tResolved or not, Franco, Abrams, and Abernathy\u2019s years-long financial purgatory also exemplifies the unfulfilled promises of #MeToo<\/a>. Women were encouraged to take action against men who had allegedly harmed them \u2014 often upending their lives in the process \u2014 only to find that the financial and emotional relief in coming forward might be ephemeral at best, nonexistent at worst. Simmons\u2019 protracted nonpayment also reflects the logistical perils and broader challenges for anyone navigating the legal process. People can willingly enter into settlements \u2014 as Simmons did \u2014 but if they don\u2019t pay, enforcement of these agreements could spiral into a labyrinthine and prolonged legal fight.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt could be indefinite,\u201d says Daniel Tabak, a partner at the New York law firm Cohen & Gresser who focuses on bankruptcy and was not involved in any Simmons cases. \u201cThere\u2019s no guarantee that [plaintiffs] will ever be able to collect.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, Simmons\u2019 financial liabilities don\u2019t seem to have impeded his movements. On Aug. 11, he posted a video of himself and a fan to his Instagram shot in New York City. \u201cNYC can be so magical,\u201d he wrote. \u201cJust met this wonderful young lady. She is full of love\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n\tFor years, Franco dealt with her pain personally and alone, and tried as best as she could to avoid thinking about Simmons. \u201cI did not follow Russell Simmons in any way. I was very averse to him and everything about him,\u201d she says. Then came #MeToo.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhile Franco declined to discuss the specifics of her allegations \u2014 \u201cMs. Franco is reluctant to elaborate on her claims against Mr. Simmons, given his penchant for litigation,\u201d her attorney, Andrew Wilson of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, tells Rolling Stone<\/em> \u2014 she spoke openly prior to the resolution about the deep emotional toll of Simmons\u2019 apparent failure to pay the settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA lot of people were writing about their experiences with powerful men having abused them,\u201d Franco tells Rolling Stone.<\/em> She had come across accounts of women speaking out against Simmons and had learned about a documentary on him while it was already in progress. \u201cI missed my opportunity to be in this film because it had already been done,\u201d Franco says. \u201cIt was a letdown.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tSimmons, circa 1994.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRon Galella\/Ron Galella Collection\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tFranco contended with economic and family hardships from a young age. The 50-year-old came to the U.S. with her family from the Dominican Republic at age 11, and describes the move as \u201ca lot of trauma.\u201d She and her siblings were separated and scattered into foster homes during the immigration process. Franco says she was \u201cpretty much living on my own by the age of 14\u201d and staying with friends in New York.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tShe wanted to act, but her dyslexia and need to learn English on her own scared her from reading in public. But Franco, who ultimately became enmeshed in the downtown New York City arts world, taught herself by \u201creading The Outsiders<\/em> with a dictionary, listening to the Smiths, and translating.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe resilience carried forward. Franco kept up with Simmons\u2019 accusers through social media and discovered the Adult Survivors Act. The 2022 New York state law created a one-year window for adult survivors of sexual misconduct to file civil claims against their alleged abusers that otherwise would have exceeded the statute of limitations. \u201cIt felt like divine intervention,\u201d she says, sometimes twirling a ringlet around her finger when she speaks. \u201cIt felt crazy and it worked out. I felt like a little bit of my history was validated. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe settlement addressed a sense of dehumanization that had weighed on her for years. \u201cIt\u2019s like a life-shifting, life-changing trauma that makes you doubt who you are and your value and your worth, and it means so little to the person who traumatizes you, who abuses you; it means nothing to them,\u201d she says. \u201cThey might not even fucking remember it. So to have that person have to admit, even if it\u2019s just to get you off their back, that you existed \u2026 it\u2019s incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAbernathy \u2014 who as Sheri Sher was a founding member of the pioneering all-female hip-hop group Mercedes Ladies \u2014 describes a sense of empowerment in her decision to come forward. The 64-year-old former rapper still delivers her words enthusiastically, often smiling as she recalls the group\u2019s music. She tells Rolling Stone<\/em> that she worried about reprisal amid her already turbulent life had she come forward back in the 1980s. Abernathy\u2019s family, consisting of her mother and 10 siblings, constantly faced eviction in New York City. Writing was her solace. She was frequently scribbling in black-and-white-speckled notebooks, covering one side in rhymes and the other with diary-like missives.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring one eviction, Abernathy recalls, city marshals took her composition book. \u201cThat really hurt me,\u201c she says. She crossed paths with Simmons a few times while she was pushing hard for Mercedes Ladies\u2019 success. She has previously said<\/a> that Simmons attacked her one evening after luring her to his office under the false pretence of a business conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAbernathy alluded to the alleged rape in her 2008 autobiographical novel<\/a>, Mercedes Ladies,<\/em> but did not name Simmons despite her friends\u2019 encouragement to do so. She mulled naming him for four months, but ultimately decided against it. \u201cI felt that if I came out,\u201d she tells Rolling Stone,<\/em> \u201cI would have a lot of trouble on my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tWendy Franco<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Dana Scruggs for Rolling Stone<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThat changed in late 2017. Following allegations against Harvey Weinstein that October, more women were coming forward with sexual misconduct claims against powerful men in the entertainment industry, including music, notably leading to the conviction<\/a> of R&B star R. Kelly and sprawling allegations<\/a> against Marilyn Manson. (Manson has denied the claims.)<\/p>\n \n\tModel Keri Claussen accused<\/a> Simmons of sexual assault in a November 2017 article in the Los Angeles Times.<\/em> Less than two weeks later, screenwriter Jenny Lumet alleged in The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>that Simmons sexually assaulted her<\/a>. Three women, including Dixon, accused Simmons of rape in a Dec. 13, 2017, New York Times<\/em> article<\/a>. (Simmons is fighting Dixon\u2019s defamation suit, in part by insisting that his broad denials of sexual misconduct on a podcast did not directly name her.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cI felt that if I came out [in 2008],<\/em> I would have a lot of trouble on my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Sherri Abernathy<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tThat same day, Abernathy was one of five women who accused Simmons of misconduct in a Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a> article. \u201cI never really expected that all these women would come out. I thought I was the only one,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen it came out, I felt a little bit of empowerment behind it. I thought there was never gonna be justice, but justice did come out.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSimmons has repeatedly denied the claims, saying<\/a> in 2017 that \u201cthese horrific accusations have shocked me to my core, and all of my relations have been consensual.\u201d He apologized in another statement for being \u201cthoughtless and insensitive.<\/a>\u201d Weeks earlier, he said that he had<\/a> \u201cnever committed any acts of aggression or violence in my life. I would never knowingly cause fear or harm to anyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe settlement \u201cwasn\u2019t about money,\u201d says Abernathy, noting how she didn\u2019t name Simmons despite her book coming out at the height of his fame. \u201cI\u2019m not a money person. I always worked and kept paying my own way.\u201d For Abernathy, who recently retired after working as a New York state court officer for 20 years, the settlement meant that Simmons was \u201cbeing held to account for his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAbrams, a writer and survivor advocate, says she was surprised that there might be any way to get justice. \u201cWhen I first heard of the Adult Survivors Act, I was shocked that it would even pass. I always held reservations about it as a mechanism for justice, because I know how extensive sexual victimization is in our society,\u201d she says. \u201cWe treat it as if it is this aberration, and while it is aberrant, unfortunately it is common. And one of the things we\u2019ve learned from #MeToo was how widespread this issue is. It\u2019s not something that just happens on the fringes of society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\n\t\tA \u2018Life-Changing Trauma<\/strong>\u2019\t<\/h2>\n
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