Chris Brown’s $90 million lawsuit over an alleged dog attack suffered a mistrial due to juror misconduct, as stated by Judge Huey P. Cotton on June 16, 2026. Brown was at court on the second day of the trial to testify in the case brought by his housekeeper, who sued him after his dog allegedly attacked her sister at his property in 2020.
However, Cotton declared a mistrial after one of the jurors reportedly searched information about the case online and told their fellow jurors about their discoveries.
“Unfortunately, one of the jurors has violated my admonitions against searching the internet for information, and not only that, but he also shared it, and as a consequence, I have to declare a mistrial,” Cotton reportedly said.
According to Rolling Stone, Cotton asked the lawyers to stay back and select new jurors from a pre-assembled pool. The trial is scheduled to resume on June 18, after the judge granted Chris Brown a delay to visit his newborn son, whom he welcomed with Jada Wallace in April 2026, in Las Vegas.
TMZ reportedly caught up with Chris Brown as he left the Los Angeles courthouse and questioned him about the mistrial, with the singer simply replying, “It happens.” When asked about the $90 million lawsuit and whether he thought it was a “cash grab situation,” he said, “That’s crazy.”
Exploring the alleged dog attack lawsuit against Chris Brown
According to Rolling Stone, Patricia Avila sued Chris Brown in 2021 for “premises liability, negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence,” alleging that one of the singer’s dogs mauled her sister, Maria Avila, at his Tarzana home on December 12, 2020. In her complaint, Avila alleged that Maria had stepped outside the house to empty the vacuum when she was attacked by a Caucasian Shepherd.
The complaint further continued that Avila heard her sister screaming and ran outside, where she found Maria “covered in blood.” Avila also claimed that she “genuinely” believed her sister might die, with the filing adding that Maria has sustained injuries to her face, left arm, and leg.
“The screams were so bad that it caused plaintiff to immediately run outside, where she found her sister covered in blood while she was screaming and crying for help… Plaintiff could observe that the dog had viciously attacked Maria’s face around her eye, there was about three to four inches of skin missing from Maria’s left arm, and that the dog had violently bitten into Maria’s leg,” it added.
Avila’s complaint alleged that she “suffered emotional distress, including but not limited to, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, weight loss, loss of appetite, intentional complications, severe anxiety, depression, fear, extreme sadness for her sister, and panic attacks” following the attack.
However, in March 2022, Chris Brown and his legal team requested that the judge reject the lawsuit, claiming that Patricia Avila was a “remote bystander who was not present when her sister was allegedly injured” and had no standing to sue because “she only heard the dog barking and her sister screaming.”
The lawsuit was not dismissed, and in an October 2023 deposition, Maria Avila described the alleged attack, claiming the dog “attacked me on my face, my hand, and it pierced its teeth on my foot.” She further alleged that Chris Brown came outside on hearing her scream and stood by while talking on the phone, before he allegedly “fled the scene.”
In his deposition, Chris Brown claimed he heard his dog growl, prompting him to go downstairs and investigate the incident. He added that he found Maria Avila “face down” on the ground, continuing:
“I didn’t touch her. I bent down, and I looked. I was — I was making sure she was breathing, and then from there, I ran and put the dogs away and yelled and told the security guard to come over… I could see her chest moving.”
The trial will resume with a new jury on June 18, 2026. On June 15, Chris Brown’s lawyers told the court that the singer accepted partial responsibility for the incident, adding that the trial would revolve around a “difference of opinion” of how much he owed Maria Avila and whether her sister also deserved compensation.
Edited by Juhi Marzia