Chris Brown Lawsuit: Dog Chewed Housekeeper's Face

New details emerged this week in the $90 million lawsuit against Chris Brown by his former housekeeper following the civil court filing of Brown's April 2025 deposition.

Rolling Stone magazine reported that Maria Avila is suing the rapper (and his company Black Pyramid, LLC) for damages suffered during an attack by one of his guard dogs at his Los Angeles home in 2020. Avila states that she required emergency surgery and has been left with extensive disfigurement, nerve damage, and vision loss.

"Maria Avila says she was removing trash from Brown’s house on Dec. 12, 2020, when a large brown dog 'viciously' attacked her, ripping chunks of flesh and even bone from her face and arm as she 'screamed in terror and called out for help.'"

"Avila alleges Brown came outside, stood over her while speaking on a cell phone, and then 'fled the scene as [she] lay on the driveway in a pool of blood, bleeding to death.'"

In his deposition filed Monday in The Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles, Brown told a different version of events from the day, and asked the judge to strike the claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and punitive damages. A hearing to address his request has reportedly been set for January 15th, 2026.

Avila's husband (unnamed) is a co-plaintiff in the suit, claiming that the harm to his wife caused him “loss of consortium damages”, awarded when a spouse or close family member is seriously injured or killed due to another party's negligence.

Avila's sister Patricia, who was at the house at the time of the attack, is also suing Brown. She alleges that she ran outside to find her sister "covered in blood while she was screaming and crying for help."

Rolling Stone quotes Brown as saying he "heard no screaming, saw no blood, at least initially, and only left the house because his manager advised him to do so once it was clear that paramedics were on their way."

Both lawsuits have been consolidated into the same trial set for February 9th, 2026.

Brown claims he only heard one of his dogs growling outside, and upon checking, discovered Avila in the driveway face down on the ground.

He testified under oath that he observed that Avila was breathing, then “ran and put the dogs away and yelled and told the security guard to come over."

When Brown was asked if he spoke to Avila, he replied, "No. Because she was – she was out. It was no communication. I got security to make sure she was okay."

Brown reportedly rounded up his three dogs, including Hades (the dog in question), then called his manager, while his security guard was on the phone with 911.

During questioning by Avila's lawyer, Brown confirmed that his manager told him to "get the hell out of there."

When asked if Brown felt bad about leaving his house under those circumstances, he replied, in part, "I’m not bad – I’m not feeling bad about leaving the house."

“I didn’t see blood initially. I think I saw blood a little bit. I was kind of squeamish with blood, so like I think when – once I seen like she had – there was blood somewhere, I kind of – kind of didn’t all the way look. I didn’t want to – I didn’t want to see the damage or whatever that happened,” he testified.

In the deposition by Brown, he further states that he was not involved in the decision by his security to remove Hades from the property before the police arrived, nor was he involved in having a security guard drive the Caucasian Shepherd to Humboldt County to abandon it. Brown's attorney allegedly stated that the dog was euthanized.

Brown also claims that he told Avila to not go outside the house without his permission, which Avila denies.

In a separate filing in June, Brown’s defense said that no security footage of the incident exists, due to the security cameras being broken.

Chris Brown (Photo credit: Leon Neal)