Singer Chris Brown arrested in California on probation violation

[March 15, 2014]  By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — R&B singer Chris Brown was arrested on Friday in Malibu, California, on a warrant issued for a probation violation related to his 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna, the Los Angeles County Sheriff said.

Brown, 24, is being held without bail in Los Angeles after being taken into custody in Malibu at 2 p.m. PDT (2100 GMT).

The singer was ordered into custody by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin after the judge was notified that Brown was not following his probation and had been discharged from a Malibu rehabilitation center where he was ordered to stay, a court spokeswoman said.

The singer, who also faces a misdemeanor assault case in Washington, D.C., had been in the rehabilitation center for anger management as part of his court-ordered probation.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles have sought to have the "Turn Up the Music" singer jailed on numerous occasions for possible violations over the past year.

They have accused Brown of cutting corners on his community service requirements and asked the court to have him put in jail following his Washington arrest in October.

Brown is scheduled to have a probation violation hearing on Monday in Los Angeles.

Brown's probation is currently revoked and if he is found to have violated the terms of his probation, he could face jail time in California.

Brown's representatives declined to comment.

Brandlin had sentenced Brown to 90 days in the treatment program in November following his assault arrest where he allegedly punched and broke the nose of a man who was trying to get a picture with him.

That trial is set to begin in April after Brown's attorney rejected a plea deal in February that would have reduced the charge to simple assault.

Brandlin said last month that Brown should stay at the Malibu treatment facility for substance abuse and anger management because he was doing well in the court-ordered program and it gave him an "adequate safety net."

In 2009, Brown was sentenced to five years probation, community labor and domestic violence counseling after assaulting singer Rihanna, his girlfriend at the time, on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Since the 2009 sentence, Brown has been involved in altercations with rapper Drake and his entourage in New York and R&B singer Frank Ocean in a Los Angeles parking lot.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)

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