TwitterA woman is suing Kim Richards and her ex-husband Monty Brinson over an alleged attack by their family's pit bull that she says left her with "grave bodily injuries" that will leave her with permanent scars.
This marks the second such lawsuit filed against the 50-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, who is currently in rehab. She and Brinson, who is living at her house while he battles cancer, have not commented.
The woman, Kelly Crossley said in her new lawsuit that the incident occurred at Kim's Los Angeles-area home around early September of last year. Two months later, the dog, Kingsley, attacked and injured the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star's niece, who is not named in the suit.
Crossley states that she was inside Kim's home, with her "express invitation," when the pit bull attacked and bit her without warning. Crossley said she was "hurt and injured in her health, strength and activity" as a result of the attack on her and sustained "grave bodily injuries" to her body, nervous system and person, all of which have caused, and will continue to cause" her "great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering."
"The injuries will further result in permanent scarring," the suit adds.
Kingsley has appeared on the show and Kim has called him her "best friend." Crossley says in her suit that after the incident, Richards "disavowed ownership" of the pet and claimed he belonged to Brinson.
Crossley claims in her lawsuit that the dog had "attacked others in a similar manner" before and that Kim "knew or had reason to know that the dog had a dangerous propensity, to wit, the habit of viciously attacking and biting humans."
Last November, two months after the alleged attack on Crossley, Kingsley bit Kim's 18-year-old niece Alexia Umansky, daughter of sister and co-star Kyle Richards, 46, several times at her house. The teen was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Kim said in a statement at the time that "when guests are over, Kinglsey stays in my bedroom and has been given access to a special fenced in area in my backyard. Anyone entering the house is made aware that the dog should not be bothered."
Kim also called the dog her "best friend" and said that she was "looking at options to what the next step is for Kingsley." She later told TMZ that the dog was sent to a trainer.
Also, in December of last year, a woman named Ellen Catherine Rozario, 81, had also sued Kim at a Los Angeles federal court over an unprovoked attack by Kingsley at the reality star's home the previous March. She won her case, but received $8,083.53 out of the more than $1 million in damages that she had sought.
"Kim was lying on the bed talking, and all of a sudden out of nowhere, the dog starts biting me," Rozario told The New York Daily News at the time. "I'm trying to pull back, but the dog has hold of me with its teeth. I fall backwards onto floor with blood spurting everywhere. There was blood all over the place."
Kim had told People at the time that Rozario's "details of what happened are vehemently not true... she walked into my bedroom the next morning reaching across Kingsley towards me and Kingsley went after her."
Crossley says in her lawsuit that Richards and Brinson's "failure" to "exercise reasonable care to control and contain" the dog during her alleged attack was "negligent." She is suing for an undisclosed sum to cover medical and psychological treatment costs, loss of income, general and punitive damages and legal bills.
Crossley filed her lawsuit on Tuesday. Kim has over the past few weeks been undergoing treatment at rehab centers following her arrest at a Beverly Hills hotel for public intoxication and other charges. On Wednesday, it was revealed that she will not return to Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as a full-time cast member for season 6.
—Reporting by Baker Machado and Senta Scarborough
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