Chris Brown has been accused of co-conspiring, aiding and abetting in a 2017 sexual assault that took place during a party at his house in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday (May 9) by attorney Gloria Allred on behalf of her client, a woman who will be known as Jane Doe.
During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Allred described the incidents leading up to the alleged assault but would not go into detail about the specific allegations, instead referring reporters to the lawsuit due to the sensitive nature of the claims. The famed women’s rights attorney with more than 40 years of professional experience did, however, offer a warning to television stations that she was unsure whether details such as those included in the suit could be aired on television.
“This is one of the most horrific sexual assault cases that I have ever seen,” she said. “And our client, Jane Doe, has been severely traumatized by what she was forced to suffer.”
According to the lawsuit, a copy of which was reviewed by Billboard, Doe had attended a concert at 1 Oak in West Hollywood, where she was invited to attend an after party at a recording studio where Brown and rapper Young Lo — whose real name is Lowell Grissom, Jr. — were working. When she arrived there, her phone was allegedly taken from her because Brown did not want any phones in the studio. Even when Doe wanted to leave, she claims her phone was not returned and she was then coerced into going to Brown’s house in order to retrieve her phone.
While at Brown’s house, the plaintiff claims alcohol and illicit drugs that she believed include cocaine, molly and marijuana were provided to guests. She also says Brown handed each female guest, including herself, a pill filled with white powder and instructed them to take it to have a “good time.” Doe did not take her pill and instead sought to isolate herself in hopes she would be left alone.
The plaintiff also claims she saw Brown and Grissom in possession of multiple guns in the house and was generally intimidated by the aggressive behavior in the house.
Meanwhile, according to the filing, Doe’s mother — with whom she is usually in close contact — became worried because she had not heard from her daughter and used an app to track the phone’s location to Brown’s house. Using that information, she called the police asking they go search for her daughter. The police did show up, but Brown refused to open the gate and denied them entry to his property.
The police left and the party continued, while Doe claims Grissom was “evasive” and would not return her phone. From there, things took a turn for the worse.
The plaintiff alleges that Brown, Grissom, a female guest referred to as Doe X — who is believed to be friends with Brown and Grissom and to have toured with them — and others planned to use drugs, alcohol and intimidation to “coerce and force unwilling female guests to perform sexual acts for Defendants and others.” They allegedly lured the female guests into a bedroom and then falsely imprisoned those unwilling to voluntarily engage in sexual activity by going so far as to barricade the door and then further “coerce, intimidate and sexually harass the unwilling female guests to commit sexual acts” on the defendants and others.
The events that then transpired, according to the lawsuit, are true to Allred’s warning. Many women were brought into a room with four beds, while Brown instructed Grissom to push a couch in front of a door and turned on loud music and pornography to allegedly “cover up the sounds of any resistance” and “create a hyper-sexualized environment in the sealed bedroom.” While some women began to engage in sexual activity with Grissom and Brown, the plaintiff refused to undress and made it clear she was not interested in participating. Still, she claims she was forced to perform oral sex on Grissom and Doe X in the room and then was later raped twice by Grissom in other rooms around the property before she was allowed to leave.
Doe went to a rape treatment center and to the police where she reported the events. According to Allred, she has participated in a criminal investigation that is still open. She is seeking general and punitive damages according to proof at trial.
Brown, Grissom, Doe X and other unnamed defendants are accused of sexual battery, gender violence, hate violence, assault, interference with exercise of civil rights, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more.
Brown, specifically, is accused of negligence of premises liability as the owner or controller of the property.
“Jane Doe has been severely traumatized by what she was forced to suffer,” said Allred at the press conference. “She filed this lawsuit because she wants justice for herself, but she also wants to warn other young women about the potential danger to themselves if they have their phone taken away and if they go to Chris Brown’s house.
“She does not want any other young woman to endure the violent sexual assaults that she was forced to endure in an environment of guns and drugs.”
Brown’s rep did not return a request for comment.
This article originally appeared in Billboard.
