Chris Brown Seeks to Bar Rihanna Assault Details From Dog-Bite Trial

Chris Brown is formally asking a Los Angeles judge to exclude any mention of his 2009 assault of Rihanna from an upcoming civil trial over a dog bite. The motion targets a conviction that has followed Brown for over a decade. The housekeeper who is suing him over injuries from a dog attack has opposed the request, calling it legally flawed and too sweeping.

The housekeeper’s legal filing, obtained by Rolling Stone, argues that Brown’s attempt at a blanket ban is “overbroad, premature, and legally incorrect.” It claims the motion would shut down potential evidence “without regard to purpose, context, or trial developments.”

Brown was arrested in February 2009 after attacking Rihanna in a parked car in the hours before the Grammy Awards. Prosecutors said he punched, choked, and bit her, and also threatened to kill her. He pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault and received five years of probation and 180 days of community labor. He avoided jail time.

The dog-bite case stems from an incident at Brown’s home, though the specifics of what happened are not detailed in this filing. The central legal question is whether the earlier violence can be introduced as relevant evidence. Brown’s side wants it sealed off completely. The housekeeper’s attorneys say such a decision cannot be made fairly before seeing how the trial develops. The ruling will test how far a court will go to protect a public figure from his own record.