Brown Sex Suit Gets On Up to Supreme Court

Thu., Nov. 16, 2006 1:41 PM PST by Gina Serpe

A Chicago woman is working overtime to make sure James Brown's sex machine stays in the shop.

Jacque Hollander is petitioning the Supreme Court to hear a $106 million sexual harassment suit she's trying to bring against the 73-year-old Godfather of Soul for allegedly raping her at gunpoint in 1988.

Hollander, who was working as the "Get Up" funkster's publicist at the time of the alleged assault, is appealing the ruling of a federal court, which threw out her case last year, claiming she waited too long to file suit. The statute of limitations on a case such as Hollander's is just two years, meaning hers would have expired back in 1990.

In making her appeal, the 49-year-old claims the time limit is unfair toward victims, particularly women who need equal protection.

In 2000, 12 years after the alleged rape, Hollander says she was diagnosed with a thyroid condition, the autoimmune disorder Graves' disease. Three years later, she says she learned the condition developed as a result of the intense stress of the assault, a common trigger for the disorder.

Her lawyer, Donald Rosen, insisted that because she didn't learn of the source for the disease until 2003—and filed her initial complaint in 2005—the lawsuit was well within the bounds of the statute.

But the lower court judge didn't buy Rosen's arguments, stating in June 2005 that the clock started ticking when the the alleged assault took place. The case was also rejected in August by a federal appeals court, meaning the Supreme Court is her final option.

"Then her only recourse is in the court of public opinion," Rosen told the Associated Press. "That would be a horrible miscarriage of justice."

According to legal papers originally filed in January 2005 in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Hollander says the attack took place while the duo was en route to a South Carolina car dealership. Brown allegedly drove to a secluded area, threatened Hollander with a shotgun and, per the suit, "raped, beat and mentally tortured her over the course of several hours." Hollander also claims the Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer threatened to kill her if she reported the incident.

Brown's attorney, Debra Opri (who also happens to be representing Anna Nicole Smith's alleged baby daddy, Larry Birkhead), meanwhile, downplayed the likelihood that the Supreme Court would agree to hear Hollander's case, equating the chances to "a pipe dream."