A week after Chris Brown threatened to retire from the music business after expressing his frustrations with his ongoing legal problems, the singer caught a rare break in the courtroom on Thursday (August 15).
According to TMZ, a judge dismissed Brown’s hit-and-run case after the singer and his alleged victim reached a compromise on the matter. Though the prosecutor in the case had argued that Brown deserved to be punished for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident because he is still on felony probation from his 2009 assault on former girlfriend Rihanna, the judge disagreed.
The victim in the case was reportedly not interested in payment from Brown because the damage to her car was so minor and she’d asked for the matter to be dismissed. The L.A. City Attorney objected, though, arguing that Brown was very aggressive to the victim and called her a bitch.
Brown’s probation in the Rihanna case was revoked in July in connection with the hit-and-run and the singer spent less than an hour in jail on the charge last week. He is due in court on Monday for a probation hearing and could face up to four years in jail if he is found in violation.
Before Thursday’s ruling, veteran Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney Mike Cavalluzzi, who has no firsthand knowledge of the case, told MTV News that Brown’s probation would likely be reinstated if the hit-and-run was dismissed.
“Once that [hit-and-run] case is dismissed, if it is due to a finding of no wrongdoing, it is also routine to reinstate the probation on the felony [assault] case,” said Cavalluzzi. However, he added that even if the misdemeanor case is dismissed but there is proof of some wrongdoing, the judge could still look at that case and determine for himself if there was some wrongdoing on Brown’s behalf and decide to violate his probation.
“It could be anything from reinstating probation with no punishment, to extending his probation, to additional community service, jail time or state prison time,” he said. The likely scenario, though, is that the judge will reinstate Brown’s probation with a violation noted on his official record.
Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, told TMZ, “The case never should have been filed in the first place. It’s unfortunate he was being prosecuted for who he is rather than what he’s done.” MTV News could not reach Geragos for additional comment at press time.
A spokesperson for Brown confirmed that the singer suffered a nonepileptic seizure while in the recording studio last Friday that was partially a result of the stresses of his ongoing legal problems. “His doctor tended to him this afternoon and attributes the NES to intense fatigue and extreme emotional stress, both due to the continued onslaught of unfounded legal matters and the nonstop negativity,” read the statement.
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