Dennis RomeroChris Brown is the new Lindsay Lohan.
First he's accused of socking somebody. Now L.A. prosecutors say he violated his probation by essentially faking his community service papers. And police in Richmond, Virginia are implicated in the scam, prosecutors indicate.
The L.A. County District Attorney's office announced today:
In a motion filed by Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray, the court was asked to decline to accept Brown's community labor in Virginia due to what appears to be significant discrepancies indicating at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting.
The pop singer was on probation for assaulting Rihanna in 2009 the night before the Grammy Awards in Hancock Park.
His sentenced required 180 days of labor. But District Attorney Jackie Lacey says his paperwork from his Virginia community service does not present “credible, competent or verifiable evidence” that he actually did it.
After finding discrepancies in Brown's community service paperwork, the District Attorney's office had investigators contact Virginia officials about Brown's work there.
In a filing asking the court to find Brown in violation of his five years' formal probation, prosecutors state:
… The evidence shows that although Virginia Probation accepted supervision of Defendant, no from that Department ever approved, scheduled, supervised, monitored or verified any of the community labor reported to this Court.
Oops.
Prosecutors say the Richmond Police Department prepared the court documents on Brown's community service progress and sent them directly to the singer's lawyer.
A Virginia probation official said giving police jurisdiction over a probation case was unusual and unprecedented and that, in fact, the local probation folks never said police could take over Brown's case.
Prosecutors say the Richmond police chief personally vouched for Brown's community service in letters, but did not keep records on the singer's work.
They say Brown had a “previously existing relationship with the [Richmond] department.”
Cops tried to explain discrepancies in Brown's work record by saying they juggled scheduling of his community service to avoid “intense media interest.”
Some of the children's center work Brown said he did was “unsupervised and uncorroborated,” prosecutors said, “while [Brown was] accompanied by a body guard, personal assistant and others … “
On one day, Oct. 23, 2010, prosecutors even say Brown wasn't even in Virginia when he claimed to have performed community service.
The motion to challenge Chris Brown's community service records by
He was the host of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Celebrity Challenge walk/run an cycling event that day in Washington, D.C., the D.A.'s office says.
Richmond police said in documentation he was doing eight hours of community service in their town.
On March 15, 2012 prosecutors say Brown was en route to Cancun on a private jet when cops said he was “picking up trash.”
In its filing, prosecutors mentioned the Jan. 27 alleged assault of singer Frank Ocean by Brown and two others in a West Hollywood recording studio parking lot.
The D.A.'s office says it started when Brown went to shake hands with Ocean. Ocean refused and said Brown was parked in his assigned space.
That's when Brown allegedly punched him, prosecutors said. Not only that but Brown allegedly said we “we bust on you too,” meaning shoot, the D.A.'s office says.
They also say he has violated probation by using medical marijuana in Virginia last year, by leaving the country for Paris July 22 without the court's permission, by snatching a phone from a fan who had just taken a photo in Miami, and by his famous Good Morning America vandalism.
The damage?
Prosecutors want Brown to start over and do all his 180 hours of community labor right here in L.A. The judge, of course, could just put him in jail, too.
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