Chris Brown Violated Probation, Judge Says

 A judge Monday revoked Chris Brown's probation stemming from the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, but the R&B singer was allowed to remain free on his own recognizance.

Brown, 24, was ordered to return to court Aug. 16. If an agreement is not reached between the prosecution and defense, a hearing could then be set to determine if Brown violated his probation by being charged with a pair of misdemeanors stemming from a May 21 traffic accident near Toluca Lake.

Brown has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the crash.

Deputy District Attorney Mary A. Murray filed court papers asking for the revocation earlier today, the same day Brown was scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor counts. That hearing was postponed until July 23 amid reports the singer had reached a financial settlement with the alleged victim.

If Brown is eventually found to have violated his probation, he could land behind bars for as long as four years.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Brandlin revoked Brown's probation after meeting privately with attorneys for about 30 minutes. Brown walked out of the courtroom without comment.

Brown allegedly rear-ended a Mercedes with his Range Rover near Toluca Lake on May 21. The singer stopped at the scene and exchanged information with the other driver, but he allegedly gave the other driver false insurance information, leading to a hit-and-run charge. He was also charged with driving without a valid license.

Brown, however, insisted on his Twitter page that he did nothing wrong.

"I did everything I was suppose to do during the so-called hit n run," Brown posted on Twitter today. "I provided the correct info. There were no injuries or damages. C'mon!!"

He added, "Love you Team Breezy. I hope people can actually see the truth."

On the day the misdemeanor charges were filed, Brown wrote, "It's not a hit and run if u get out (of) the car, exchange information."

"I have a valid drivers license and I gave the woman the right info," he wrote. "She saw cameras and wanted to make a scene. She contacted the cops thinking of a payday from Chris Brown when I followed the proper procedures," he wrote.

The celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Brown had reached a financial settlement with the other driver -- identified as Olga Gure- Kovalenko. The website reported that Gure-Kovalenko no longer wants Brown prosecuted, but the City Attorney's Office had not yet decided whether to drop the misdemeanor charges.

Brown pleaded guilty in June 2009 to assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, admitting that he assaulted Rihanna during an argument that began around 12:30 a.m. Feb. 8, 2009, while they were in a rented Lamborghini after attending a pre-Grammy Awards party.

Brown was sentenced to five years probation, a yearlong domestic violence program, which he completed, and 180 days of community labor. Prosecutors, however, filed papers earlier questioning whether Brown had completed his community labor hours, citing "significant discrepancies" in reports about Brown's work in his native Virginia. The discrepancies indicate "at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting," according to the court papers.

But Brown's attorney, Mark Geragos, filed papers rejecting the allegations, saying prosecutors "chose to ignore the actual evidence in an effort to find someone, anyone, to say he was not working."

"They also chose to ignore their own reports from numerous people who not only saw him working, but saw him working tough manual labor," Geragos wrote in his response, noting that he had received unsolicited reports from firefighters in Virginia attesting that "Mr. Brown's 'worked his ass off."'

--From City News Service