Summary
- A Los Angeles jury has found singer Chris Brown liable for a 2020 dog attack that left his housekeeper with severe and permanent injuries, ordering him to pay nearly 12.9 million in damages.
- Testimony during the trial revealed that Brown fled the scene after the attack rather than calling emergency services, reportedly out of concern that his presence would attract media attention.
- Brown had claimed prior to the trial that the dog was kept for security purposes and was not his personal pet.
A Los Angeles jury has found singer Chris Brown liable for a 2020 dog attack that left his housekeeper with severe and permanent injuries, ordering him to pay nearly 12.9 million in damages. Her sister, Patricia Avila, who was also working at the property on the day of the attack, received 50,000.
Avila’s attorney, Michael C. Murphy Jr, expressed satisfaction with the outcome, saying the team was thrilled to have achieved justice for their client after more than five years of litigation. He called it an honour to have represented her and her family through what he described as a horrific experience.
During her testimony, delivered in Spanish through an interpreter, Avila described the lasting consequences of the attack. She was left with severe scarring on her face and left arm, and surgeons were required to graft skin from her abdomen to repair the damage to her arm. She said she was no longer able to work as a housekeeper due to reduced arm strength, and that post-traumatic stress has made it impossible for her to be around dogs kept as pets by clients.
Testimony during the trial revealed that Brown fled the scene after the attack rather than calling emergency services, reportedly out of concern that his presence would attract media attention. Brown had claimed prior to the trial that the dog was kept for security purposes and was not his personal pet. He also testified that he had warned both housekeepers about the dog, though the Avila sisters denied any such conversation had taken place, noting that language differences would have made it impossible anyway.
The verdict comes just four days after Brown kicked off a co-headlining summer tour with Usher across the United States. Separately, he is scheduled to face trial in London in October over an alleged unprovoked assault on a music producer with a bottle at a nightclub in 2023.
The judge ruled ahead of the trial that Brown’s 2009 felony conviction for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna could not be raised during proceedings.
