Grammy-winning music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid has quietly settled a sexual assault and harassment lawsuit filed by former record executive Drew Dixon, according to the Associated Press. 

The move means Reid will avoid a high-profile jury trial that was set to start in New York this week. John Legend and recording executive Roy Lott were among the witnesses scheduled to testify on Dixon’s behalf.

Although the terms of the agreement are confidential, Reid’s attorney shared, “Mr. Reid has amicably resolved this matter with Ms. Dixon without any admission of liability,” said Reid’s lawyer, Imran H. Ansari, in a statement. 

Dixon worked under Reid at Arista Records in the early 2000s. According to the complaint, the first assault occurred in 2001 on a private jet with Reid while heading to a company retreat in Puerto Rico. 

“He asked her to sit next to him to go over materials for the presentation, and then he began playing with her hair, kissing her and digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent,” the suit states, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Dixon alleged in court papers that he assaulted her twice in 2001 and then retaliated when she rejected his advances by slashing her budget and sidelining her artists. Her rejection ultimately stifled her then meteoric rise in the music business.

“Harm came from the fact that Mr. Reid would directly respond to Ms. Dixon’s rejection of his sexual advances by punishing the artists Ms. Dixon had already signed or by blocking the artists she attempted to sign,” wrote Kenya Davis, a lawyer for Dixon. She was eventually pushed out of the label in 2002. ​

Dixon first shared her allegations publicly in 2017 and later detailed them in the 2020 documentary “On the Record,” which spotlighted sexual misconduct and abuse of power in the music business.

The lawsuit was filed in 2023 under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. This law briefly reopened the window for adult survivors of sexual abuse, allowing survivors to bring civil cases that would’ve otherwise been barred due to statute of limitations restrictions.

“I hope my work as an advocate for the Adult Survivors Act helps to bring all of us closer to a music business that is safer for everyone,” Dixon said outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, the AP reports. “And in a world where good news is often hard to find, I hope that survivors today see a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”

At his height, Reid was among the most powerful music executives in the business, fostering the careers of artists like Usher, Outkast, and Mariah Carey. 

He abruptly left his role leading Epic Records in 2017.