In the lawsuit, Lidia Mattis claims that the same dog that attacked her had a history of violence and mauled Queen Latifah's dog to death.
Celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan is being sued by a 19-year-old woman who says her dreams of being an Olympic gymnast were dashed after she was attacked by Millan’s pit bull.
In the lawsuit, Lidia Mattis also alleges that the same dog, named Junior, was responsible for the death of Queen Latifah’s dog.
Mattis told Inside Edition that she had been honing her gymnastics skills since she was 5 years old and that gymnastics was her “entire world.”
Mattis says her mom worked at Millan’s office in Van Nuys, California, as vice president of legal and business affairs. The day of the alleged attack, she says her mom picked her up at the gym and took her to the office, where the dog was unsupervised.
Junior is a pit bull Millan referred to as his “best friend, Junior Millan." The dog was often seen at the dog whisperer's side.
Mattis says she had seen the dog before, since her mom had been working for Millan. According to her lawsuit, “Junior...bit [Lidia] repeatedly on the legs” causing “deep puncture wounds and lacerations.”
“I tried going back to the gym after with hope of returning to normal and getting my life back so that I could keep going with something I had put my entire life into, and it was pretty quickly obvious that that was not going to happen,” Mattis said. “My leg is still pretty much numb to the touch where I was bit.”
The lawsuit also claims Junior "had a history of violence.”
In fact, it claims “Junior mauled one of [Queen Latifah’s] dogs to death. Mr. Millan covered up Junior’s violence by instructing his staff to tell [Queen Latifah] and others that a car killed her dog.”
Cesar Millan and Queen Latifah did not return requests for comment. In court documents, Millan denied all of Mattis’s allegations.
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