Two more women claim that Extra host A.J. Calloway sexually assaulted them

Two more women have accused Extra host A.J. Calloway of sexual assault.

Last June, model Sil Lai Abrams came forward with the Hollywood Reporter and shared that she was raped by Russell Simmons and assaulted by the 44-year-old host.  

She shared in an update that since coming forward, nine other women have come forward and shared their stories about the former 106 & Park host. 

Abrams took her story to the Hollywood Reporter, which published her accusations against the two high-profile men last June, as well as an account of her disappointing efforts to get the story reported on MSNBC

‘I spoke to these women, and they’re terrified of coming forward… So when I was writing my Huffington Post piece about the impact coming forward has had on my life, I emailed Blake Bryant, the head of publicity at Warner Bros. Television asking him why they haven’t issued any statements,’ she explained to the Daily Beast.

‘I let him know that I’d spoken with multiple women and there are multiple alleged victims of A.J. I was thinking, Warner Bros. has got to say something, I mean, what are they going to do? I got no response.’ 

And two more women spoke to The Daily Beast claiming Calloway sexually assaulted them. 

One accuser, who wished to remain anonymous, shared that she went forward with her allegations on December 24 to the West Orange Police Department in New Jersey. She said that she was told by the authorities that they would reach out to her for an interview.

The woman shared her story with Abrams ‘because the first person I told didn’t believe me, and I just happened to Google to see if anybody else had the same experience with the same person and her name popped up. So she was actually the first person I told him after the actual incident who actually believed me.’ 

She went to police ‘when I found out I wasn’t the only one.’ 

‘I’m terrified about coming forward,’ another woman, going by Talia, said. ‘I don’t want it to affect my future, everything that I’ve worked hard for—and A.J. is someone that would try to do that.’ 

Talia explained that she and Calloway knew each other through a mutual friend and first connected on social media  

‘He started messaging me in 2011,’ she said. ‘He wanted to take me out to dinner and I kept telling him no, I wouldn’t entertain his advances.’ 

Talia shared that at the time of the their fling, Talia was in her early 20s while Calloway was well into his late thirties.  

She added: ‘After him asking me out repeatedly I agreed to go, because it got to a point where he started to get upset that I was actually not willing to go out with him. He was kind of like, do you know who I am?’

The woman claims that when they finally went out to dinner, Calloway drank heavily and invited ‘a group of people to his home to party.’ Talia rode in Calloway’s vehicle. 

At Calloway’s home, the host ‘made everyone put their belongings on the kitchen table’ and made everyone go downstairs to the entertainment room. 

Talia recalled that Calloway finally walked the other guests out his home at around three in the morning.    

‘We started making out. And I knew I wasn’t having sex—I knew adamantly I wasn’t having sex because I won’t have sex unless I’m in a committed relationship,’ she detailed. ‘So, you know, even though I’m kissing him, I’m thinking, this is the first date, we’re just making out a little bit—because I’ve never even had sex on the first night with someone.

‘Even though he’s tall and he looks skinny, he has some weight to him. He’s heavy, you know, and he put his whole body weight on top of me. He kept trying to open my blouse. He really was going for my skirt, and I was literally pulling my skirt down because I was not going to allow him to go any further. 

‘And he thought it was a game or something because he kept laughing and giggling and I’m like, no, stop, stop. And the more I said stop the more he got aggressive, and that’s when I started to realize, oh my God, this is serious. Like, he’s really going to try and force me to have sex with him.

‘I just remember trying to push him off of me, and this went on for 40 minutes straight. Me attempting to push him off of me and fighting to keep him from taking my clothes off. Eventually he got tired, and I think it’s because he was so intoxicated—it was wearing him out.

‘And I just remember him pulling his penis out and he began stroking himself and he kept trying to put my hand on his penis and eventually he ejaculated on my hands.’

The woman shared that she was in a rush to ‘get out of there’ but that she didn’t have a ride.

Abrams, who now works as a domestic violence activist, had already written about being raped by Russell Simmons and sexually assaulted by Calloway in her 2007 book No More Drama, but she didn’t name either men

Talia said: ‘After what happened he said, “I’ll take you home in the morning, I promise.” It was like he was in denial about what he just did to me. And I didn’t know what else to do, so I just agreed. I remember that the whole night he wrapped his legs around me, so I couldn’t get away. I just remember trying to move and position myself where I could breathe because my face was in his chest, his legs were wrapped around me, his arms were wrapped around me, and that’s how he slept the whole night until morning.’

Following the incident, Talia removed the mutual friend she had with the host. The woman explained she took the measure because she didn’t want to risk ever having to see him again.’  

‘I never wanted to tell anyone because I didn’t think people would believe me because he was a celebrity and I was just a regular girl,’ she said. ‘I thought that it’s just one of those situations that happen and you just have to move forward with your life.’

She says she was raped by Russell Simmons (left, in March) in 1994 and sexually assaulted by Extra’s A.J. Calloway (right, at the Met Gala in May) in 2006  

Talia decided to come forward after seeing an article about Calloway that included Abrams’ testimony. 

‘When I saw it and I read what happened to Miss Abrams, I knew right then and there she wasn’t lying. I was 150 percent sure that she wasn’t lying because what she described was almost identical to what happened to me,’ Talia asserted. ‘I wanted her to know that even if billions of people don’t believe you, there’s someone who can vouch that what you said is really true.’

Learning of the other allegations, Talia was left in shock.  

She said: ‘It was crazy because this whole time I thought my assault was an isolated incident because I had never heard anything about him that was negative after what he did to me.’

‘I think the hardest part for me is every time I turn the TV on, he was on the television. He’s on Extra, he’s doing the Soul Train Awards or something and it would make me feel like—not just disgusted, but low and defeated, like he gets to do whatever he wants and hurt people, and I have to live with the shame and pain of what he did to me.’ 

Abrams wrote about the two assaults in her 2007 book No More Drama, but didn’t name the men 

Calloway’s lawyer, Lisa E. Davis, said of the new allegations: ‘We cannot comment on vague secondhand allegations beyond that Mr. Calloway firmly denies any claim that he assaulted someone.’

A spokesperson for Extra told DailyMail.com: ‘We take allegations made against our employees seriously and investigate appropriately. To date, we have not received a complaint about A.J. Calloway and his work on “Extra”.’ 

Abrams, who now works as a domestic violence activist, had already written about being raped by Russell Simmons and sexually assaulted by Calloway in her 2007 book No More Drama, but she didn’t name either men.

In the wave of the Me Too movement, she finally felt ready to come forward and publicly accuse both men. Both men have denied the allegation.  

Abrams took her story to the Hollywood Reporter, which published her accusations against the two high-profile men last June, as well as an account of her disappointing efforts to get the story reported on MSNBC.

She says her story is evidence that ‘the system is working as it always has’.

‘Stories are being silenced and it doesn’t matter how much information, how much corroboration and evidence that you have. You can do everything the right way and you’ll still be shut down because a news organization doesn’t want to take a risk and face a potential lawsuit, which perpetuates the abuse of power and empowers men like Simmons to say they’re going to be OK,’ Abrams told the magazine. 

Abrams claimed she met Calloway for drinks one evening in 2006, as she was planning a non-profit fundraiser that she hoped the then-BET host would attend. 

Despite the fact that Calloway was married, and that Abrams brought her own date to the event, she said he was extremely attentive to her and kept paying her compliments that made her feel uncomfortable. 

Nevertheless, she was in a bind to find a big name for the event and booked him anyway. She says Calloway helped recruit other presenters for the event, which turned out to be a success. 

In the following weeks, she said Calloway called her multiple times to talk about the non-profit she hoped to found. During their conversations, she said he occasionally tried to talk about sex but she rebuffed him. 

The day after Christmas, Abrams said she met with Calloway for a drink, and at the end of the night he offered to drive her home. 

In the car, she says Calloway asked her ‘Do you see what you do to me? and then exposed his erect penis to her. 

She said she responded: ‘Why don’t you do us both a favor and put that away?’ 

Because it was late, cold and they weren’t far away from her home, she decided to stay in the car instead of flee, figuring Calloway wouldn’t want to go further after she told him off.

But as they were pulling up to her building, she says he started kissing her and fondling her breasts.

She said he exposed himself again and then tried to push her head down to his penis. When she pulled away, she claims he grabbed her hand and put it on his penis and stroked himself until he ejaculated. 

Before getting out of the car, Abrams said she asked Calloway why he had done that. She added he later called to apologize.

Two friends told THR that Abrams called them shortly after the second assault and told them what happened. One of the friends said he urged her to go to the police.  

Abrams took that advice, filed a report and Calloway was subsequently arrested, THR reports.

An attorney representing Calloway responded to Abrams’ allegations in a statement to THR: ‘These decade-old allegations are false. They were false when they were first made and are false now. Mr. Calloway fully cooperated with law enforcement from the beginning, denied the allegations, and the case was completely dismissed in November 2007. After the case was dismissed, the court records were sealed as a matter of law and are no longer available.’    

DailyMail.com reached out to representatives of Simmons and Calloway for comment as well. Representatives for both men replied. 

‘Russell Simmons provided overwhelming material to THR (some on the record and some off the record) to support his unequivocal denial of any wrongdoing and THR chose to ignore it. It is extremely disappointing that a 24-year-old story, which did not get past very credible news outlets, was published in light of the massive contrary evidence,’ Simmons’ lawyer Patricia Glaser said. 

Calloway issued this statement through his lawyer, Lisa Davis: ‘I was disappointed to read the false allegations about me in The Hollywood Reporter. As I have maintained from the beginning, these allegations are not true. When I was first notified about these allegations by law enforcement more than a decade ago, I fully cooperated from the beginning and the case was dismissed.

‘THR chose to publish these meritless allegations without a thorough investigation of the facts. I intend to vigorously defend my reputation against these false accusations and will not let this cause further harm to my family.’