James Brown's Latest Legal Woes

Thu., Jan. 6, 2005 2:20 PM PST by Sarah Hall

According to a Chicago-area woman, James Brown is the reason she's not feeling so good.

Former Brown employee Jacque Hollander sued the oft-legally challenged Godfather of Soul for $106 million in Chicago federal court Wednesday, claiming he raped her at gunpoint in South Carolina back in 1988--an attack which she said later caused her to develop Graves' disease.

Hollander was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder in 2000. According to her lawsuit, her doctor told her in 2003 that the alleged rape was the "actual and proximate cause" of her illness.

While the disease can be brought on by stress, many times the exact cause is unknown, according to the National Graves' Disease Foundation.

Brown's attorney quickly moved to discredit Hollander's claims, calling the suit "rag sheet fodder."

"This is what you call a shakedown in its most stupid form," attorney Debra Opri told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's too little, too late and baseless."

Brown, who is in South Carolina, recovering from recent prostate cancer surgery, had no comment.

According to her suit, Hollander was an aspiring songwriter in 1988, working as a publicist for Brown in exchange for help launching her musical career. One day, while she rode with him in a van en route to a car dealership, Brown suddenly began acting strangely, driving recklessly and muttering incoherently, the suit said.

He allegedly drove the van to a secluded spot and threatened Hollander with a shotgun while he "raped, beat and mentally tortured" her over the course of several hours, the suit said.

Hollander's attorney, Donald Rosen, said Brown threatened to kill his client if she told anyone of the encounter, but that she eventually told police of the attack in 1990. Rosen said he was unsure of what happened with the case after that.

Rosen said he expected the lawsuit to be challenged by Brown's attorneys on the grounds that the statute of limitations on rape ran out long ago.

However, he claimed that under the discovery rule, the time frame on the statute of limitations began once Hollander learned in 2003 of the alleged link between her illness and the alleged attack. From that point on, he said, she had two years to file her suit, a deadline she met.

But Opri said Hollander's claims were raised in a 2002 trial that cleared Brown of sexually harassing another woman back in 1999. She said that a judge dismissed the allegations as frivolous and that Brown never raped Hollander.

Dubbed the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Brown has a history of keeping his lawyers and various law enforcement officials working hard as well.

After he was arrested on assault and weapons convictions in 1988, Brown served close to three years in prison.

In 1998, he was sued by a woman who accused him of holding her hostage. That same year, he spent 90 days in court-ordered rehab after sheriff's deputies found marijuana and unlicensed guns at his house.

Last January, police were called to Brown's home in response to a domestic dispute during which the Sex Machine allegedly struck his wife, Tomi Rae. After spending a night behind bars, Brown eventually pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal domestic violence.

Meanwhile, after publicly announcing that they were splitting, annulling their union and annulling their unions to others, the Browns may be taking another stab at marital bliss. Just as soon as all that paperwork gets worked out, that is.