Chris Brown has rejected a plea deal in his misdemeanor assault case in Washington, DC, with his lawyers saying the singer turned it down because he is not guilty.
Brown appeared in DC Superior Court on Wednesday for a status hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes. Prosecutors had offered a deal that would have required him to plead guilty to simple assault. “We reject that offer,” his attorney Danny Onorato told the court, and he said outside the courthouse that the deal was rejected because Brown is not guilty. Brown did not speak during the hearing and declined to comment afterward.
Mark Geragos, who represents Brown in his California case, also took part in the hearing. “It was rejected because he’s not guilty,” Geragos told the New York Daily News. “I’ve seen everything I need to see in this case, so absent prosecutors turning over video footage of [Brown] doing it, there’s little or no chance of any plea deal.” Prosecutors said in court they would soon turn over substantial video surveillance but did not say what it shows.
Brown showed up in a charcoal three piece suit with his hair back to its natural dark color, a change from the bleached blond look he had when he was arrested in October. The Washington Post described the scene at the courthouse as frenzied, with more than a dozen U.S. Marshals standing guard.
The case stems from an October 27 incident outside the W Hotel in Washington. Brown and his bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, are accused of hitting a 20 year old Maryland man named Parker who tried to get into a photo Brown was taking, and police say the man’s nose was broken. Both men were first charged with felony assault, but the charge was reduced to misdemeanor simple assault. Hollosy’s lawyer said he rejected the same deal Brown was offered, and Brown’s team has said the bodyguard was protecting his client. If convicted, each man faces up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The DC case has bigger stakes for Brown because he is still on probation in California for his 2009 assault on Rihanna, and a judge there could decide the Washington arrest violated that probation. Brown is currently in anger management rehab in California, and Geragos said the team will ask that Brown be excused from the next DC hearing on February 20, when a trial date is expected to be set, because the trip costs him three days of treatment.
