Chris Brown had the support of his girlfriend yesterday when he appeared in court to face allegations that he failed to complete his community labor sentence for assaulting Rihanna in 2009.
As a result of that assault which Brown, 23, pleaded guilty to, he received a sentence of five years probation and 180 days of community labor.
According to The Associated Pres s (AP), Rihanna arrived in court with Brown, his mother, and two other women and threw her boyfriend a kiss as he entered the courtroom.
Rihanna, 24, reportedly sat quietly in the front row of the gallery during the brief court session and left arm in arm with Brown. The singer recently went on record confirming she and the singer were back together.
In the brief proceeding, Superior Court Judge James Brandlin said he needed to time to review the evidence and set the next hearing for two months time.
In court, Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, protested the LA district attorney’s handling of the case and said he would be filing a motion oppose their move to alter Brown’s community labor sentence.
Geragos also submitted a letter from Richmond Police Chief Bryan Norwood, disputing the prosecution’s claims of shoddy record keeping and inadequate supervision in Brown’s home state of Virginia where he served his community labor sentence.
Although prosecutors asked that the court order Brown do his 180 days sevice over again in Los Angeles County, the judge noted during the court session that a prosecution filing did not request revocation of Brown’s probation and he, therefore, would not revoke it.
After the court hearing, Geragos filed a furious response to the court asking that prosecutors be sanctioned for submitted material to the court that was “DEAD WRONG” [his emphasis], AP reports.
Geragos offered details of Brown’s various community labor stints clearing up at stables, waxing floors, picking up trash, shredding documents, and painting walls.
In a news conference held after the hearing, Geragos described the LA District Attorney’s motion as a “vicious and unwarranted attack on Mr. Brown.”
Geragos went on to say:
“I’ve never had a client, and I’ve represented a wide breadth and thousands of clients, never ever had a client who has been tortured by a DA’s office on probation like Chris Brown has.”
He added that Rihanna had attended the court hearing because “she thinks it’s utterly ridiculous what they’re doing to him, as do I.”
Geragos also said that prosecutors had ignored interviews “where sworn peace officers stated unequivocally that Mr. Brown was supervised and did all of the community service.”
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , a motion was filed on Tuesday by LA prosecutors asking the court to modify Brown’s probation due to insubstantial documented evidence that the singer completed his community labor.
The motion also cites a number of recent incidents that they say demonstrate Brown’s ongoing anger management issues.
Among them is an alleged January 27 altercation in Westlake Recording Studio’s parking lot with singer Frank Ocean, who Brown is up against in the “Best Urban Contemporary Album” category at the Grammy’s this Sunday.
Ocean has since said he will not be pressing charges against Brown.
In addition, the motion mentions a 2011 incident in a Good Morning America interview during which Brown threw a chair through a window when he was asked about his attack on Rihanna.
Prosecutors were alerted to alleged discrepancies in Brown’s community labor records after he logged 701 hours in September 2012. Brown reportedly spent one-third of the hours he logged working night shifts at the Tappahannock Children’s Center in Virginia where his mother once served as director.
A LA detective who checked on Brown’s work nine times at the day care center found the singer, his mother, and a bodyguard there on each occasion.
For their part, the prosecution’s filing said, “Claims that the defendant cleaned, stripped and waxed floors at that location have been credibly contradicted.”
Prosecutors also noted that Brown’s mother, Joyce Hawkins, still had her own set of keys and coordinated her son’s work at the facility even though she no longer had a formal role at the day care center.
Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray stated in her filing that the Richmond police report on Brown’s service was “at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting,” said The Independent .
Prosecutors have said they can’t find credible evidence that Brown completed his community labor and that no-one from Virginia’s probation department oversaw Brown’s hours.
The motion also states that the only records the department has to indicate that Brown was supervised were officers’ overtime sheets. Out of the 21 days that officers logged in overtime related to Brown, five of these were for security at the singer’s concerts.
Judge Brandlin ordered Brown to meet with his probation officer within 48 hours to discuss the alleged discrepancies and set a date of April 5 for the next hearing, The New York Times notes .