L.A. Reid Sexual Assault Trial Delayed

The sexual assault trial of legendary producer L.A. Reid was scheduled to begin in two weeks, but on Monday, a federal judge ruled that it will be delayed until early next year.

As previously reported, former music executive Dru Dixon filed a lawsuit in 2023, accusing Reid of derailing her career at Arista Records after she turned down his sexual advances. Earlier this month, Dixon won a pre-trial motion, advancing the lawsuit. Reid failed to get the lawsuit dismissed in August of last year, and in July, his now-former attorneys asked to withdraw from the case due to “substantial non-payment” and non-cooperation from their client, according to Complex. However, according to the judge, the change in counsel is not what led to his trial, which was long scheduled for September 8, being delayed.

From Complex:

Reid showed up on Monday with potential new counsel in tow: Diana Fabi Samson and Michael DiBenedetto of the firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, who he had just met with for the first time earlier that day. Fabi Samson explained that the lawyers were willing to represent Reid, but needed more than two weeks to get up to speed. It would be “malpractice,” she explained, to head to trial with that little notice. Even though this is a civil and not a criminal trial, she said, her potential client has a lot on the line.

“For Mr. Reid, this is fighting for his life — his financial life, his reputation,” Fabi Samson said.

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas initially seemed dead-set against moving the trial back, explaining that she had told Reid’s earlier attorneys many times that their leaving the case would not change the September 8 date. She was aware, she said, that if Reid got new attorneys, they would inevitably ask for a delay.

“This is the exact scenario that I warned we are not going to tolerate,” she said.

So, the sudden change in Reid’s legal representation didn’t necessarily sway the judge towards delaying his trial, but she did change her mind after Reid informed her that he did not have the case file, which Vargas said was “very problematic from a due process standpoint,” considering the trial was two weeks out at that point.  

Vargas, of course, wasn’t happy about having to go back on her decision that the trial should proceed as scheduled.

“The court is very regretful that it feels constrained to do this,” she said. “[But] there’s a significant due process matter.”

Dixon’s lead attorney, Kenya Davis, was also unhappy with the decision. Davis argued there was nothing to prevent Reid from, once again, failing to pay his attorneys, which could lead to him losing them again and another trial delay.

“I’m concerned Mr. Reid will play this game again,” Davis said.

But Vargas told Reid, “We’re going to proceed with the new trial date, whether you have counsel or not,” after assuring Davis that the trial wasn’t being delayed due to his legal representation being in limbo, but because he did not have a complete case file.

The judge set a provisional new trial date of January 12.