Chris Brown ordered to pay former housekeeper $13 million after dog attack

Chris Brown found himself back in court this week to litigate a 2020 attack in which his 200-pound dog Hades attacked Maria Avila, his housekeeper at the time. According to Billboard, a Los Angeles court sided with Avila, ordering Brown to pay $12.9 million in damages, as well as $885,000 to Avila’s sister Patricia, who was also working, for emotional distress. Avila had been at work in Brown’s Tarzana, California, home in December 2020 when she was mauled by Hades, an enormous Caucasian Shepherd that the musician used as a guard dog.

The dog left Avila with serious arm and face lacerations, some of which required stitches and skin grafts from her abdomen. She was left with extensive scarring, PTSD, and nerve damage, which has made it difficult for her to work, sleep, and carry out basic everyday tasks in the years since the incident. “I will never be the same again,” Avila told jurors. The selection process for the jury was arduous, as a number of potential jurors stated they could not be unbiased due to knowledge of Brown’s 2009 felony assault conviction against Rihanna—not to mention the later rape and assault allegations made against him. 

Brown claimed that he heard Hades growling outside and rushed downstairs to secure the dog in its kennel. There, he found Avila lying on the ground and covered in “a lot of blood” but, after calling security, Brown left the scene. He did not call 911, for fear of the “media circus” it might provoke, and did not stay to watch an ambulance arrive or offer Avila comfort or medical assistance. “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 told Avila’s lawyer. 

According to his testimony, Brown admitted that he drove around and hung out at a gas station until Avila left the scene. He told the courtroom that he instructed Avila not to go outside without telling him because of the unfriendly dog, a claim Avila and her sister both dispute. Conveniently, Brown did not ask his security to preserve surveillance video of the attack and its aftermath. Avila stated she had not known Hades was on the property that day, having only seen Brown’s two small French bulldogs around the house. Brown’s attorney conceded that Avila should be entitled to damages, but revealed that there was a “difference of opinion” over how much. Brown will stand trial in the U.K. later this year after allegedly attacking a music producer with a bottle in 2023. 

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