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Thursday, April 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Wounded Student Sues|Rapper Chris Brown

SAN JOSE (CN) - A college student who was shot in the foot sued rapper Chris Brown and a San Jose nightclub, claiming they knew that "violence follows in Brown's wake."

Paul Briley was one of five people who were shot at a Jan. 11 "bash" at the Fiesta Night Club in San Jose.

Briley, 22, a student at San Francisco State, says he suffered nerve damage from the shooting.

"This never should happen," his attorney Richard Alexander told Courthouse News. "Brown's managers and promoters know that predictably violence follows in Brown's wake.

"Chris Brown was the talent draw at the Fiesta Nightclub and he controlled the terms on which he would work. His promoters, managers and staff know him well. This gentleman is a multimillionaire performer who makes big money and he literally and figuratively calls the tune on where he works and the working conditions, right down to the food and beverages he wants in his dressing room. He can and should always demand security for his fans, especially since he has a full retinue of bodyguards right at hand to protect him."

Briley's Aug. 27 complaint in Santa Clara County Court says it's not the first rodeo for Brown or the Fiesta Night Club. At least four other "violent events and/or shootings" happened at the Fiesta in the year before Brown's show, the complaint states.

Brown was sentenced to 5 years probation in August 2009 for beating his girlfriend, singer Rihanna; in June 2012 he and his bodyguards were involved in a violent altercation in New York; in August 2014, gunshots were fired and one man was shot six times at a party Brown hosted; in September 2014 there was a stabbing at Supperclub in Hollywood after Brown performed, which led Los Angeles police to try to ban him and his entourage from all nightclubs in the Los Angeles area, according to the complaint.

Briley seeks medical expenses and damages for negligence and premises liability.

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