Story highlights
- Detectives will interview out-of-state witnesses suggested by Brown's lawyer
- A woman says Brown grabbed her iPhone after she took a photo of him in Miami last month
- Arrest could have serious implications, as he's on probation for assaulting pop star Rihanna
- Brown is on probation until 2014
A Miami prosecutor wants detectives to interview a few more witnesses before she decides if singer Chris Brown will be charged for allegedly snatching a woman's cell phone last month.
The case has serious implications for Brown, 22, because he is still on probation for assaulting pop star Rihanna in February 2009. Although he's earned glowing probation reports, another arrest in Florida could be considered a probation violation by the Los Angeles judge.
A woman filed a complaint against Brown after he allegedly grabbed her iPhone after she used it to take a photo of him in a car on a Miami street on February 19, police said.
"We have taken the statements of our local witnesses and have just finished discussing with the lead Miami Beach detective the additional witness information supplied by Mr. Brown's attorney Mark Geragos," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday.
Geragos, a Los Angeles lawyer, represented Brown after his domestic violence arrest.
"We now must interview these individuals, some of whom may be from out of state, just as we do in every criminal investigation in order to uncover the truth in its entirety," Rundle said.
Brown was sentenced to five years of probation, ending in 2014, and ordered to serve more than 1,400 hours in "labor-oriented service" after he pleaded guilt to assaulting Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammy Awards.
That incident also involved a cell phone. According to Brown's probation report, an argument began when Rihanna found a text message on Brown's cell phone from "a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with."
Brown punched Rihanna numerous times and put her in a head lock, restricting her breathing and causing her to start to lose consciousness, according to a police report.
