JAMES BROWN RAPE CASE MAY GO BACK TO COURT

A woman who claims soul singer James Brown raped her is asking the Supreme Court to hear her sexual harassment lawsuit, which a lower court ruled this year she had waited too long to file. Jacque Hollander argues that the state's two-year statute of limitations in such cases does not provide equal protection to women. In her lawsuit, Hollander said Brown raped her at gunpoint in 1988 while she was working as his publicist. She seeks $106 million in damages. Hollander said she sued Brown after she developed a thyroid condition in 2000 that doctors told her was caused by the stress of the alleged assault. She said the statute of limitations also shouldn't apply because the condition wasn't diagnosed for 12 years. Brown's attorney, Debra Opri, called Hollander's request for the Supreme Court to hear the case "a pipe dream." The appeal is likely Hollander's final legal option, said her lawyer, Donald Rosen. "Then her only recourse is in the court of public opinion," Rosen said. "That would be a horrible miscarriage of justice." A federal appeals court tossed out Hollander's lawsuit in August.

JAMES BROWN IN COURT