An Atlanta prosecutor is looking into claims made by a woman who attests that James Brown was murdered. The woman, Jacque Hollander, delivered a bin of alleged evidence to Fulton County DA Paul Howard on Wednesday (Feb. 12).
Hollander is reviewing the materials before deciding on a formal investigation.
The Godfather of Soul died on Christmas Day in 2006, two days after being admitted into an Atlanta hospital. He was 73 years old.
Hollander, a former circus singer and songwriter who collaborated with Brown in the 1980s and became apart of his “inner circle,” claims that she was also close friends with his third wife, Adrienne Brown, who died in 1996. Hollander also alleges that Brown raped her in the Georgia woods one night in 1988 and threatened to kill her, and her family, if she told anyone. She filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against Brown the year before he died.
Nearly a dozen other people associated with Brown believe that he was the victim of a homicide, and that his death should be investigated, including his doctor. The music legend’s late daughter, LaThonda Petit, and late son-in-law, Darren Lumar, both alleged that he was murdered. One of Brown’s friends, who also believes that he was murdered, swiped a vile of his blood from the hospital after he died.
Brown’s official cause of death is listed as a heart attack and fluid in his lungs. Dr. Marvin Crawford, who signed Brown’s death certificate, told CNN last year that he questioned how the soul legend deteriorated so quickly after being hospitalized. “He changed too fast. He was a patient I would never have predicted would have coded. But he died that night, and I did raise that question: What went wrong in that room?”
Another of Brown’s daughter, Yamma Brown, declined to have an autopsy performed on his remains. Brown was finally laid to rest 76 days after his death in a South Carolina crypt at his daughter, Deanna Brown’s, home. A battle erupted over his $100 million estate that has yet to be settled. In 2014, Brown’s fourth wife, stated in an interview that his remains were removed 14 times after his death.