From NY Daily News:
Chris Brown rejected a plea deal Wednesday related to his alleged sidewalk smackdown in Washington D.C. last October.
The singer appeared in court in the nation’s capital with his prominent California-based lawyer Mark Geragos and girlfriend Karreuche Tran.
He sat quietly with his bodyguard Christopher Hollosy, his co-defendant in the case, as their lawyers indicated prosecutors were taking a hard line in negotiations.
“My client is charged with simple assault, and the plea deal is simple assault,” Hollosy’s lawyer Bernie Grim explained to the judge.
“Sometimes a deferred prosecution agreement or deferred sentencing agreement is offered as part of a plea deal, but that was not the case today,” Bill Miller, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia, said outside court.
Deferred prosecution agreements allow defendants to get amnesty if they fulfill certain terms of the deal.
The parties agreed to return Feb. 20 to get a tentative trial date, and prosecutors promised to hand over surveillance footage related to the incident.
Brown, 24, wore a dark three-piece suit and a new natural brown hairstyle that replaced his recent bleached blond look.
The “Run It” crooner is in court-ordered anger management rehab in California after the Los Angeles County judge on his Rihanna assault case reviewed his Washington D.C. police report and revoked his probation last month.
The judge sent Brown back to rehab, not jail, and ordered him to stay put for 90-days of treatment and take all medications prescribed by his doctors.
The short-fused singer was arrested on suspicion of felony assault and tossed in jail Oct. 27 after a 20-year-old man claimed Brown went berserk and broke his nose outside the W Hotel, just blocks from the White House.
A police narrative obtained by the Daily News states the alleged assault victim – identified in court as Parker Adams – told cops the melee erupted when he tried to crash a photo Brown was taking with his female friend and another person.
The Grammy winner pleaded not guilty to the reduced misdemeanor charge in October and voluntarily checked into rehab for anger management days later.
He was temporarily kicked out of treatment Nov. 10 for losing his cool and hurling a rock through a window of his mom’s car during a family therapy session.
If convicted of the simple assault charge, Brown faces up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, prosecutors said.
He could also get more jail time in California if his Los Angeles judge decides the D.C. incident violated his probation for beating Rihanna.
Geragos said Wednesday he would file a motion to get Brown excused from the Feb. 20 court date in D.C. because he needs to focus on his rehab recovery.
“My client is presently in a residential program and loses three days of treatment just doing the traveling,” Geragos told the judge.
