Story highlights
Chris Brown must do "community labor" doing graffiti or beach cleanup or other tasks
Judge reinstates his probation; doesn't weigh in on debate if he'd already done some
The decisions come a day after a hit-and-run charge against Brown is dropped
The singer is on probation for the 2009 beating of Rihanna
Chris Brown once put out an album named “Graffiti.” Now, he could find himself removing it.
That’s one of the tasks that the singer will have to do – with others including beach cleanup or work for Caltrans, the California agency responsible for highway, bridge and rail construction and maintenance – per a judge’s order Friday.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin signed off on 1,000 hours of such “community labor” for Brown as agreed to by the singer’s camp and prosecutors.
The judge also reinstated probation for Brown “under the original terms and conditions” that stemmed from his previous run-ins with the law, incidents that in some ways have defined him as much as his talents and popularity as an artist.
Brown sat quietly through Friday’s court hearing in Los Angeles, with two brief exceptions: When he told Brandlin, “yes,” he accepted the agreement and later that he had no further questions.
The judge closed the session by telling Brown he must contact his probation officer within 48 hours. His next court appearance is set to start at 2 p.m. November 20.
The dropping of a hit-and-run charge against the singer on Thursday laid the groundwork for Friday’s action.
The accuser in that case, Olga Gure, told investigators Brown “went ballistic” and screamed at her after his Range Rover rear-ended her Mercedes on a Los Angeles street.
Judge revokes Brown’s probation
The trigger for Brown’s alleged rage was that Gure took a photograph of him and his girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, to document the scene because he allegedly refused to show her his driver’s license, she said.
When Brown tried to grab the camera, Tran screamed, “Don’t touch her, don’t touch her,” Gure said.
Whatever was documented in the police report, Brown’s lawyer said this week that Gure “did not want to pursue this.” Mark Geragos said that the accuser did not get any money in her settlement with his client.
This incident was one of several high-profile headaches Brown has had over the years.
The most well known offense came in February 2009, when he was charged with domestic violence for punching his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street. The altercation left the face of Rihanna, also a chart-topping singer, bruised and bloody on the eve of the Grammy Awards.
Rihanna shows support in court for Chris Brown
He entered a guilty plea seven months later and was sentenced to serve five years probation and ordered to spend more than 1,400 hours in “labor-oriented service.” The judge allowed him to serve the sentence in Richmond, Virginia, under the direct supervision of the police chief.
In a court filing in February, prosecutors accused Brown of not completing the community labor. District Attorney Jackie Lacey said then the paperwork the singer submitted to prove he’d done the work was “at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting.”
Geragos fired back, calling the prosecution’s motion “fraudulent.”
Judge Brandlin made a point Friday not to pick sides on this debate over Brown’s previous service, saying “the court does not make any findings regarding the alleged violation in this matter.”
CNN’s K.J. Matthews reported from Los Angeles, and CNN’s Greg Botelho reported and wrote this story from Atlanta. CNN’s Alan Duke and Topher Gauk-Roger contributed to this report.
