Chris Brown returns to court for probation issues

LOS ANGELES (AP) - With the woman he assaulted throwing him a kiss, Chris Brown walked into court Wednesday to face allegations he failed to complete his community labor sentence for Rihanna’s 2009 beating.

A judge asked for more information and scheduled another hearing in two months.

Rihanna, the glamorous singer whose bruised face became a tabloid fixture after she was beaten by her then-boyfriend on the way to the Grammys, has been dating Brown again.

She arrived with the R&B star, his mother and two other women and blew him a kiss as he entered the courtroom. They left together after the short proceeding in which Superior Court Judge James Brandlin set the next hearing for April 5.

Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, said he was disturbed about the way the district attorney handled the matter and said he would be filing a motion opposing the prosecution’s move to modify Brown’s fulfillment of his community labor sentence.

Prosecutors, who said they could find no credible evidence that Brown had completed his community labor in his home state of Virginia, asked that he start all over and put in 180 days in Los Angeles County.

Prosecutors have suggested there was either sloppy record keeping or fraudulent reporting.

Later in the day, Geragos filed an angry response, alleging that prosecutors submitted material to the court that was “DEAD WRONG” and asking they be sanctioned.

He offered details of Brown’s various community labor stints clearing brush at stables, shredding documents, painting walls and picking up trash.

In a news conference Geragos said, “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 said Rihanna was present in support because “she thinks it’s utterly ridiculous what they’re doing to him, as do I.”

He said prosecutions launched a “vicious and unwarranted attack on Mr. Brown” and officials in Richmond, Va., who oversaw his community labor program.

He submitted a letter from a Richmond Police Department official disputing the prosecution’s claims of shoddy record keeping and inadequate supervision in Brown’s home state where he was allowed to fulfill the requirements.

The judge noted during the brief court session that a prosecution filing did not request revocation of Brown’s probation and he, therefore, would not revoke it.

The prosecution motion filed Tuesday also raised for the first time in Brown’s felony assault case several incidents that prosecutors said demonstrate Brown has ongoing anger management issues.

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