Chris Brown must pay $13 million in damages to the housekeeper who was mauled by a massive security dog on his property in December 2020, a California jury decided Tuesday.
Brown and his company Black Pyramid LLC must pay $12.9 million in damages to the housekeeper, Maria Avila, for negligence, said Michael C. Murphy Jr., a lawyer representing her sister, Patricia Avila. Patricia, who was working with Maria when the attack happened, was awarded $885,000 for emotional distress. Maria’s husband Oscar Olivo — who claimed his wife’s injuries affected their marriage, depriving him of the intimacy they had before — was separately awarded $50,000. Billboard was first to report the news.
“After more than five years of litigating against Chris Brown, we are thrilled that we were able to get justice for our client, Patricia. We are so happy for her and her family after everything they went through on that horrible day. It was an honor to represent her,” Murphy said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Maria Avila gave emotional testimony at the two-week trial, breaking down on the witness stand as she described the Dec. 12, 2020, mauling at Brown’s home in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She said the attack left her with severe injuries to her arm and face, extensive scarring, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I will never be the same again,” she told jurors in the courtroom in Van Nuys, California, on June 24.
Testifying in Spanish through an interpreter, Avila described a grueling recovery. She said surgeons harvested skin from her abdomen to graft onto her mangled arm, leaving her in extreme pain and unable to bend at the waist. The lacerations to her face required dozens of stitches. Pandemic restrictions barred her family from visiting during her five days in the hospital, forcing her to endure the ordeal alone.
A mother of three, Avila told jurors that nerve damage and chronic sensitivity on her left side still make it hard for her to sleep and carry out basic daily tasks. She no longer has the arm strength to scrub floors or wring out a mop, she said. Meanwhile, the attack also left her afraid of all dogs. That fear, combined with her physical limitations, has effectively ended her career as a housekeeper, since most of her former clients own dogs, she said.
Avila’s daughter, Yoseline Espinoza, testified after her mother, recalling the panicked call she received from her aunt, Patricia Avila, who had also been working at the house that day and filed her own claims against Brown. “She was just freaking out, telling me, ‘Your mom can’t breathe. She keeps passing out on me. The ambulance is still not here. Chris Brown fled the scene,'” Espinoza testified. “I did not think she was going to make it.”
Brown, 37, testified as the first witness at the trial. He told jurors he heard the dog, Hades, growling outside and rushed downstairs to find Avila face down and motionless on the ground. He told jurors he locked up the dog, called out to his security guard to summon help, and bent down to make sure Avila was breathing. He acknowledged he didn’t personally call 911, saying he feared a recording would be leaked to the media. He also said he never touched Avila, offered her water, brought her a towel, or gave her any comfort beyond telling her help was on the way.
Describing Avila’s injuries for the jury, the singer pointed to his forehead and traced a finger down his nose and under his eye. “It was cut, like, severed,” he said. “I know it’s graphic, but you could see the skin was kind of raised. You could see the cut and the blood coming out. …It was a lot of blood.”
Brown said he left his property before paramedics arrived because he’s a celebrity. He said his manager allegedly suggested it. He also confirmed he never asked his security to preserve his home surveillance video from the incident.
“What would have been the problem with you being there and waiting for paramedics to get there with a woman bleeding in your driveway? Why would that be a problem for you as a celebrity?” Avila’s lawyer, Nancy Doumanian, asked, incredulous.
“Because of how my image is and always used. I didn’t want a misleading story, or like a circus, from my status. It’s pretty sticky when it comes to that. So me staying out of the way was advised,” he said.
“Didn’t you think your reputation would take a bigger hit if you fled the scene?” Doumanian pressed.
Brown said he did not flee. He said he spent a couple of hours driving around and stopped at a gas station before he was advised it was safe to return home.
Avila testified that she didn’t know the large Caucasian Shepherd, also known as a Central Asian Ovcharka, was on the property that day. She told jurors she only saw Brown’s two other dogs, small French bulldogs, and she denied Brown’s claim that he warned her not to go outside without an escort because there was a third dog on the property that was not friendly.
Speaking softly, Avila said she had gone outside to empty a vacuum bag when the attack occurred, and that she can only recall flashes of the mauling and its aftermath. She told jurors she had to leave the courtroom during opening statements when graphic photos of her injuries were displayed, and that she still hasn’t been able to look at them. “It’s very hard for me. I can’t,” she said.
With her hands visibly shaking, she rolled up her left sleeve and walked to the jury box, turning her gaze to the wall as jurors examined the raised and pitted skin covering much of her forearm. She then removed her glasses and swept back her bangs to reveal a pattern of scars running from beneath her left eye up across her forehead.
Before trial, Brown admitted negligence under California’s dog-bite statute in a court filing. He continued to dispute the extent of Avila’s injuries and claimed she was partly at fault for going outside alone. Brown’s attorney acknowledged during jury selection that Avila was entitled to some damages but said there was a “difference of opinion” over the amount.
Several prospective jurors were dismissed early in the selection process after saying they could not be impartial because of Brown’s 2009 felony assault conviction involving his then-girlfriend Rihanna. The judge previously ruled that history was not relevant to the case, but the prospective jurors brought it up on their own.
This article was updated on June 30 at 11:21 p.m. ET to include a statement from Michael C. Murphy, Jr., an attorney for Patricia Avila.
