A new documentary examines Chris Brown’s history of violence

LOS ANGELES, October 27: Chris Brown’s behavior has come under renewed scrutiny with the release of a new documentary titled Chris Brown: A History of Violence, produced by Investigation Discovery. The documentary details the numerous allegations against the singer and presents accounts from several women, including the high-profile cases involving Rihanna and Karrueche Tran. Among the allegations, an unnamed woman, dubbed Jane Doe, claims Brown drugged and raped her aboard Sean “Diddy” Combs’ yacht in 2020.

Brown’s legal team categorically denied Doe’s allegations, calling all of the claims made in the document “malicious and false.” The documentary coincides with the network’s “No Excuses for Violence” campaign, which aims to raise awareness during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It provides an overview of Brown’s career in the music industry, where he was once hailed as Michael Jackson’s successor, juxtaposed with the fallout that followed his physical attack on Rihanna in 2009.

The documents included references to police photos showing Rihanna’s serious injuries. According to police reports, she claimed that Brown repeatedly punched her, choked her until she was almost unconscious, and threatened to kill her. After the incident, Brown pleaded guilty to assault and received a sentence that included five years’ probation and community service.

After a tumultuous relationship, Brown and Rihanna briefly reconciled, facilitated by Combs, who invited them to his Miami mansion to help mend their relationship. However, they ended up breaking up twice after that. Domestic violence specialists featured in the documentary explain how childhood exposure to violence – a reality shared by both Brown and Rihanna – can perpetuate cycles of violence in adult relationships.

The video continues to depict the pattern of Brown’s alleged molestation. Tran, who was in a committed relationship with him from 2010 to 2015, was given a five-year restraining order against Brown. She accused him of physically assaulting her, including claiming he punched her in the stomach, pushed her down the stairs and threatened her life and the lives of her friends. Additionally, while undergoing anger management therapy, Brown reportedly vandalized his mother’s car and broke a window on the set of Good Morning America. He also got into spats with artists like Drake and Frank Ocean, and his former collaborators faced lawsuits for violent behavior. Just last summer, he was accused of brutally assaulting several men at a concert in Texas.

The document highlights the numerous sexual assault allegations made against Brown. Freddy Sayegh, a criminal defense attorney and entertainment attorney featured in the film, notes Brown’s extensive history of violence spanning nearly 15 years. Despite these serious claims, Brown has managed to maintain a prominent position in the music industry. A year after the attack on Rihanna, BET invited him to perform in a tribute to Michael Jackson. More recently, as he kicked off his “11:11 Tour” in June, Brown shrugged off efforts to blacklist him, continuing to enjoy a large fan base and ranking as the second most-followed male artist on Instagram .

The document includes testimony from Jane Doe, who recalls an alleged drug and rape incident in 2020. She stated that she received death threats after Brown was sued in 2022, but her intention was to “shed light on what really happened.” . Doe described herself as an aspiring dancer new to Los Angeles who met Brown at Combs’ home during a trip to Miami. She initially found him friendly, but claimed that when he gave her a drink, her memory became blurry and she felt disoriented. She claimed that Brown took her to a bedroom and raped her despite her protests, and later texted her offering to take the morning-after pill.

Although Doe initially continued to communicate with Brown after the incident, therapy later helped her recognize it as a sexual assault. She filed a $20 million lawsuit in 2022, but the emergence of the text messages led her lawyers to conclude that she was not entirely reasonable, causing them to withdraw from her case. Ultimately, the judge dismissed the case due to lack of prosecution. One of her lawyers, Ariel Mitchell-Kidd, appears again in the documentary, expressing regret that he did not develop a more trusting relationship with Doe.

In response to Doe’s claims, Brown’s lawyers maintain they are fabricated, and Brown’s representative has not received any comment. The documentary also features Liziane Gutierrez, who accused Brown of assault in 2016, and revisits his detention in Paris in 2019 on aggravated rape charges that were ultimately dropped.

The documentary uses expert testimony and statistics to contextualize Brown’s extensive history of legal troubles while drawing parallels to the delayed accountability faced by figures like Combs and R. Kelly. Sunny Hostin, who hosted the post-documentary screening, expressed concern that many people seemed to have forgotten Brown’s violent past, especially the assault on Rihanna, emphasizing the need for continued awareness of the issue of domestic violence.