Chris Brown is asking a Los Angeles judge to bar any mention of his 2009 felony assault of ex-girlfriend Rihanna at his upcoming dog-bite trial — but the housekeeper suing him says not so fast.
In a new filing obtained by Rolling Stone, the housekeeper argues Brown’s bid for a blanket ban is “overbroad, premature, and legally incorrect,” saying it tries to shut down potential evidence “without regard to purpose, context, or trial developments.”
Brown was arrested in February 2009 for attacking Rihanna in a parked car on a Los Angeles street in the predawn hours before the Grammy Awards. Prosecutors said he punched, choked, and bit her, and also threatened to kill her. He later pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault, avoiding jail but receiving five years’ probation, 180 days of community labor, and a year-long domestic violence program.
In her new filing opposing Brown’s motion, the housekeeper suing him over the alleged dog attack says his “sweeping request” for a total ban on any mention of the Rihanna assault “improperly assumes” she plans to use it to smear his character. She calls that claim “speculative,” saying she would only raise the issue if needed to “rebut misleading testimony.”
“If defendants or their witnesses testify in a manner that portrays defendant as nonviolent or non-threatening, minimizes plaintiff’s fear or trauma, or otherwise attacks plaintiff’s credibility based on emotional response, then prior acts evidence may become admissible for impeachment or rebuttal, even if not admissible in plaintiff’s case-in-chief,” the filing states.
A trial in the long-delayed case is now set to begin on June 15. The plaintiff, Maria Avila, filed her lawsuit in April 2021, claiming she was mauled by a security dog at the R&B star’s Tarzana home on Dec. 12, 2020.
According to her lawsuit, Avila was taking out some trash when a large brown dog “viciously” attacked her, tearing flesh — and even bone — from her face and arm as she “screamed in terror and called out for help.” She claims Brown came outside, stood over her while talking on his phone, then “fled the scene” as she lay bleeding in the driveway. Avila says she needed emergency surgery and now suffers permanent disfigurement, nerve damage, and vision loss.
Brown has spent years fighting the case, along with a related claim from Avila’s sister, Patricia, who says she ran outside to find her sister “covered in blood” and screaming. In deposition excerpts filed in court, Brown said he initially heard no screams and saw no blood, and left only after his manager told him to once paramedics were on the way.
Brown testified he was upstairs when he heard his dog, Hades, growling. “Hearing the actual growl is what actually shocked me, to make me go downstairs,” he said. When he reached the driveway, he found the housekeeper “face down” on the ground.
“I didn’t touch her. I bent down, and I looked. I was — I was making sure she was breathing, and then from there, I ran and put the dogs away and yelled and told the security guard to come over,” Brown said under oath. Asked how he knew she was breathing, he said: “I could see her chest moving.”
“I’m not bad,” he added. “I’m not feeling bad about leaving the house, more concerned about — about her, making sure she was okay.”
Brown said he had no role in removing Hades before police arrived, or in the decision to have a security guard drive the Caucasian Shepherd to Humboldt County, where the dog was abandoned.
In her own October 2023 deposition, Avila said the dog pounced without warning. “It attacked me on my face, my hand, and it pierced its teeth on my foot,” she said. “I didn’t see it, I simply felt it — it was something really big.” She said she didn’t see Brown take the dog away, but believes he called 911. “I only heard the car that left,” she said. She also disputed Brown’s claim she’d been told not to go outside without permission.
Brown’s motions to exclude evidence at the upcoming trial are set to be argued at a final status conference on June 5.
