GENE SIMMONS Settles Sexual Battery Lawsuit With Female Journalist

According to Billboard, Gene Simmons has settled a sexual battery lawsuit filed against him by a radio and television broadcaster.

The woman, identified as "Jane Doe," filed a lawsuit against Simmons in Los Angeles Superior Court on last December alleging that the KISS bassist/vocalist grabbed her hand multiple times and "forcefully placed it on his knee and held it on his knee." The accuser, identified in the documents as a "longtime on-air personality for a local rock station," also said the 68-year-old rocker "forcibly flicked/struck" her throat when she spoke to Simmons and his bandmate Paul Stanley at their Rock & Brews restaurant at San Manuel Casino in Highland, California. In addition, she claimed Simmons "reached toward [her] buttocks and touched it" while they were posing for a promotional photo together after the interview.

A hearing took place on July 2 about the case, and the woman's attorney told Los Angeles County Supreme Court Judge Daniel S. Murphy the parties had reached a settlement. The judge said both sides need to file a request for dismissal to officially dismiss the case.

Terms of the proposed settlement haven't been revealed.

This past April, Gene told Australia's News Corp about the lawsuit: "It's already dismissed with prejudice," meaning that the court case cannot be refiled. "We're going after that person," he continued. "When I was growing up and somebody said something bad about you, you would be able to sue back for slander."

He added: "There's presumption of innocence, and I don't go into the night softly. I've had a long 45-year career. Anybody wants to start something, you picked the wrong guy."

Gene previously denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

"For the record, I did not assault the person making these accusations in the manner alleged in the complaint or harm her in any way," he said last December.

The woman's attorney, Willie W. Williams, told The San Bernardino Sun in an interview last year her client was "embarrassed and humiliated by the incident with Mr. Simmons" and "filed suit because she wanted to make a strong statement that this behavior is unacceptable and she wants to see an end to this type of behavior."

The lawsuit against Gene came less than a month after it was reported that he had received a lifetime ban from Fox News for crashing a staff meeting and allegedly indulging in some bizarre behavior. He later denied the allegations, telling BBC "Hardtalk" that "somebody [at Fox] apparently had the goods in for me and called The Daily Beast or something and said whatever they said I did. I did nothing. I always had people around me. Like when I come here, I've got handlers and everybody sees what I'm doing. You can't go into a public area and do anything.”

Simmons went on to talk about the pitfalls of social media at times only spotlighting one side of a story: "Nobody calls you and says, 'Do you have a comment?' So the story was printed, and, of course, everybody exploded. And Fox, they're nice people — I like them a lot — closed ranks and they're afraid of getting sued by everybody. Nothing happened. I stand by every word."