Chris Brown's $12.9 million dog attack verdict is about to shrink by $5 million, and the judge gave the housekeeper one alternative
He didn't call 911 because he worried the recording would leak, and a jury made him pay for how that night went. The bill is now being rewritten from the bench, and the choice about what happens next isn't his.
A Los Angeles judge signaled on Thursday that he plans to cut the $12.9 million a jury awarded Chris Brown's former housekeeper, Maria Avila, after his dog mauled her in 2020. Superior Court Judge Huey P. Cotton's tentative order brings the award down to about $8 million, and Avila's lawyer, Nancy Doumanian, said in court that the cut comes to almost 40%, or more than $5 million, Rolling Stone reports. She asked the judge to settle at $11 million instead. He wasn't interested:
"We can either retry it, or you can agree. I just need a decision." — Judge Huey P. Cotton
The sticking point is Avila's nerve damage. The judge's tentative finding says there isn't enough evidence it is permanent. Doumanian pointed to her surgeon's trial testimony about an injured radial nerve that limits how she grips, writes and dresses. Cotton told her to spend her time proposing how the cut should be split across the award, including $900,000 for future medical bills.
What the jury heard in June
The attack happened on December 12, 2020, outside Brown's home in Tarzana. Avila had stepped out to empty a vacuum bag when Hades, a Caucasian Shepherd that FindLaw puts at over 200 pounds, went for her arm and face. Surgeons grafted skin from her abdomen onto her arm. Pandemic rules kept her family out during five days in the hospital.
On June 30, the jury gave Avila $12.9 million, plus $885,000 to her sister Patricia and $50,000 to her husband, Oscar Olivo. Brown had already admitted negligence under California's dog-bite law. On the stand, he explained why he never called 911 himself and left before paramedics arrived:
"Because of how my image is and always used. I didn't want a misleading story, or like a circus, from my status." — Chris Brown at trial
He said his manager suggested he leave, and confirmed he never asked security to save the surveillance footage.
The tour money and the Rihanna question
Since the jury came back, the case has followed Brown on the road:
- July. Avila's lawyers asked the court to freeze accounts tied to his stadium R&B Tour with Usher, which runs from June 26 into December.
- August. A judge allowed her to collect from Brown's royalties and tour income, per Digital Music News.
- Collection. The ruling lets money be routed to Avila before it reaches Brown, a tool California law allows for non-wage income like concert profits.
- New-trial motion. Brown's lawyers called the award excessive and argued jurors should never have heard that he has a felony conviction.
That conviction is for assaulting Rihanna in February 2009, when Brown was 19. He pleaded guilty to felony assault and got five years' probation. Jurors in the dog case heard only that the conviction exists, not the details.
The next move is Avila's: take roughly $8 million now, or go back in front of a new jury and try for more.
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