The Godfather of Soul was hit with a lawsuit from his former publicist today (January 7, 2005), who claimed that the legendary singer raped her at gunpoint in 1988.
The woman, Jacque Hollander, claimed that James Brown, weilding a shotgun, raped her at gunpoint, while she was riding in a van with him in South Carolina.
Although the incident took place in 1988 and the statute of limitations on criminal charges against James Brown had ran out, Hollander filed the lawsuit in 2005, because a doctor believed the stress from the rape could have contributed to her to developing Grave’s Disease.
Hollander sued James Brown for $106 million, although the lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
But, due to the incident, some states changed the laws concerning the statute of limitations when it came to rape.
In Illinois, a new law was passed that allowed victims of rape who had been intimidated or manipulated into staying quiet, to avoid the two-year statute of limitation rule that applied to the criminal act.
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