Was James Brown's Death Suspicious? DA Will Decide

A prosecutor in Atlanta will decide whether to open a formal investigation after meeting with a woman who says she has evidence legendary singer James Brown's death was caused by another person, his spokesman said. Brown, known as the Godfather of Soul, was 73 when he died of heart failure on Christmas day in 2006 in Atlanta, less than two days after being hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia. A woman named Jacque Hollander contacted Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard's office to request a meeting, claiming Brown's death was caused by another person, according to the prosecutor's spokesman Chris Hopper, per the AP.

Howard met with Hollander on Wednesday and accepted a bin of materials she said related to Brown's death. Howard will look at the materials Hollander brought and decide whether to open an investigation, Hopper said. CNN published an investigative series on Brown's death, citing 13 people who have called for an investigation or at least an autopsy; Hollander was one of those people. "He changed too fast," the doctor who signed Brown's death certificate told CNN, wondering if a toxic substance may have been at play. "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?"

(More James Brown stories.)