A friend found Bobbi Kristina Brown face-down in a bathtub last week and called 911, not her partner, according to a lawyer.
Lawyer Philip Holloway said that 24-year-old Maxwell Lomas of Duluth, Georgia – not Nick Gordon – found Bobbi on Saturday at a house in suburban Atlanta.
Lomas and Gordon, 25, were both listed in the police report as being at the home.
Bobbi, 21, is the only child of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston. Her relatives have said she is in a hospital “fighting for her life”.
Lomas was arrested on January 15 and charged with weapons offences, marijuana possession and possession of an anxiety drug.
Holloway says Lomas pleaded not guilty and the arrest is unrelated to the discovery of Bobbi in the bathtub.
Holloway said of Lomas: “He immediately pulled her from the water and called 911 as well as alerting other people in the house.
He immediately pulled her from the water and called 911
“He did whatever he could do to assist in resuscitative measures until first responders arrived. He remains in the Metropolitan Atlanta area and has been questioned by police as have many other people.”
The lawyer described Lomas as a close friend and frequent house guest of Bobbi’s.
Bobbi has previously commented about her marriage to Gordon, the orphaned young man she grew up with after Houston brought him into the family. But her father’s lawyer said they never wed.
“To correct earlier reports, Bobbi Kristina is not and has never been married to Nick Gordon,” read a statement released by R&B singer Bobby Brown’s lawyer.
Legal authority over Bobbi’s healthcare and money could become a critical issue for the fractious Houston-Brown family.
Gordon has not spoken publicly since she was found in the bathtub. Police said he attempted to revive her while Lomas called police, and that she was alive when rushed to a hospital.
Whitney never formally adopted Gordon, but raised the two teenagers together after divorcing Bobby.
Bobbi became the sole inheritor of her mother’s estate when she died in 2012, and shortly thereafter, she and Gordon went public with their romantic relationship.
Then, in January last year, she posted a photo on Twitter of the couple’s hands wearing wedding rings, with the caption “#HappilyMarried. So #InLove. If you didn’t get it the first time that is.”
Relations between Gordon and some other family members soured last year. He remains subject to a protective order barring him from being within 200 feet of Bobbi’s aunt, Patricia Houston.