Chris Brown is asking a Los Angeles court to toss out the $12.9 million verdict against him and grant a new trial, arguing that testimony about his 2009 attack on then-girlfriend Rihanna unfairly swayed the jury, TMZ reported Wednesday.

A Los Angeles jury found Brown and his company, Black Pyramid LLC, liable after his 200-pound Caucasian shepherd, named Hades, mauled his housekeeper, Maria Avila, while she was taking out the trash at his Tarzana home on December 12, 2020. The attack left Avila with facial disfigurement, scarring, vision loss and nerve damage, according to trial testimony reported by Variety. The jury's award totaled roughly $13.835 million: about $12.9 million to Avila, $885,000 to her sister Patricia Avila for emotional distress, and $50,000 to her husband, Oscar Olivo.

Before the trial, Brown's attorneys had asked the court to bar any mention of his 2009 felony domestic violence conviction stemming from his assault on Rihanna, but the judge ruled the testimony admissible. Brown now argues that decision poisoned the jury against him and inflated the damages award beyond what the dog-bite claim alone would have justified.

Brown's legal team filed the request for a new trial — or, alternatively, for the judge to reduce the award — in the weeks following the verdict, according to reporting on the filing. A hearing on the motion has not yet been scheduled. If the judge denies the request, Brown's attorneys are expected to pursue an appeal, setting up a longer legal fight over both the verdict and the size of the award.