James Brown’s Lawyer Breaks Silence as DA Weighs Potential Death Investigation

The long-time attorney of the late James Brown, Buddy Dallas, did not comment to the media after an investigate series on Brown was released in early 2019. But now that Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr. has stated that he is considering opening a formal investigation into the death of the singer, Dallas did have a comment: “Exhume him. I don’t have any feeling about it one way or the other.”

There are a few mysteries laying just under the surface pertaining to Brown. After his death at the age of 73 in 2006 in Atlanta, his body was supposedly placed in a crypt outside of the home of his daughter Deanna Brown Thomas near Aiken, South Carolina. However, another daughter in 2010 claimed that the crypt was empty. Both Deanna and the executor of Brown’s estate, Russell Bauknight, would not comment as to the body’s location.

Another mystery is the man’s death itself. When Brown was ill in December of 2006, his friend Andre White suggested he see his doctor, Dr. Marvin Crawford. Crawford treated him for a mild heart attack and a mild case of congestive heart failure on December 23. It appeared that the man improved quickly, and was near being released on Christmas Eve. Later that same night, he stopped breathing. Crawford wanted to know why he had taken such a sudden turn for the worse, so he spoke with Brown’s daughter Yamma about having an autopsy done, but she declined. Just a few months later, Yamma’s husband Darren Lumar publicly requested an investigation. Lumar was killed in a shooting in 2008, suggested to be a “contract killing,” but no suspects have been charged.

Shana Quinones, a Los Angeles woman who said she worked for Brown in the 90s, claims that she knew Brown’s personal manager, Charles Bobbit. Bobbit, who died in 2017, supposedly saw Brown the night he died. Allegedly, Bobbit told Quinones that Brown said, “Mr. Bobbit, I’m gone. They got me.”

See Thomas Lake, James Brown’s Lawyer Breaks Silence as DA Weighs Potential Death Investigation, CNN, March 3, 2020.