US singer Chris Brown has been found liable for a dog attack that left his housekeeper mauled and disfigured at his home in 2020, with a jury ordering him to pay $12.9 million in damages.
Following a two-week trial in Los Angeles, the jury found in favour of Maria Avila, who was attacked by a 200lb (90kg) Caucasian shepherd owned by Brown while she was emptying the rubbish at his house in Tarzana, California.
Brown and his company Black Pyramid LLC must now pay the damages for negligence, according to US publication Billboard.
Avila said the dog, named Hades, ripped off “large chunks of her skin,” which subsequently led to permanent facial disfigurement, scarring, vision loss, and nerve damage.
Speaking in Spanish with an interpreter, Avila told the court she was left with severe scarring on her face and left arm, as well as limited mobility after surgeons grafted skin from her abdomen to repair her arm.
She showed the jury “a pattern of scars running from beneath her left eye up across her forehead” as well as the “raised and pitted skin” on her forearm, according to Rolling Stone.
During the trial, the jury heard testimony indicating that, instead of calling emergency services or attending to Avila himself, Brown fled the scene following the attack.
The jury heard that he left his employees to care for Avila, saying he feared there would be a “media circus” if his voice was heard on the 911 call or if he was present when police arrived.
Brown said he had been about to shower when he heard the dog growling, and went downstairs to find Avila lying motionless and covered in “a lot of blood.”
“The blood kind of freaked me out,” he said, adding that he was “in shock” when he followed his manager’s advice to leave the scene before emergency services arrived.
Brown admitted some culpability before the trial began, but he disputed the extent of Avila’s injuries and argued that she was partially at fault for the incident.
The singer said he had warned Avila and her sister Patricia, who was also working when the attack took place, that the dogs were “absolutely not” friendly and told them only to go outside when security were present.
The two housekeepers denied that conversation with Brown took place, and said the language barrier would have made such a discussion unlikely.
A further $885,000 has been awarded to Patricia Avila, while Maria’s husband Oscar Olivo was separately awarded $50,000. Patricia’s lawyer Michael C Murphy said: “We are thrilled that we were able to get justice for our client.”
Representatives for Maria Avila and Oscar Olivo have not yet commented.
Brown is currently on tour in the US with R&B singer Usher. He is also scheduled to face trial in the UK in October over an alleged attack on a music producer with a bottle in a nightclub in 2023. He appeared in court in the UK in January alongside co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu and was granted bail.
