Chris Brown on jet to Cancun while supposedly doing community service
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During many of the hours that Chris Brown claims he was doing community service, he was actually at a function in Washington, D.C., arriving on a plane from Dubai or traveling on a private jet to Cancun, the L.A. district attorney alleged Tuesday.
Brown likely faked fulfilling his community service hours in Richmond, Va., and has given no ‘credible, competent or verifiable’ evidence that he has completed any of his court-ordered community labor, Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said Tuesday.
Prosecutors noted ‘significant discrepancies’ and are asking a judge to order Brown to fulfill his obligation in Los Angeles County in connection with his 2009 sentence for assaulting his girlfriend, singer Rihanna.
Prosecutors sent investigators to Virginia, where Brown maintains a residence and where he was ordered to complete 1,400 hours of community service, after they noticed discrepancies in the numbers provided by officials there.
Police in Richmond reported Brown ‘picking up trash for 4 hours’ between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. March 15, 2012, but flight records obtained by the district attorney’s office show Brown boarded a private jet from Richmond to Cancun at 4 p.m. that day, making ‘it physically impossible for the defendant to have picked up trash’ during that time, according to a 19-page motion filed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Murray.
The prosecutor noted that community service work was meant to be done under supervision of the Richmond police, but the only documentation of the hours came from the overtime two detectives claimed in supervising Brown.
Murray noted that on five of the days where overtime was accrued, Richmond police personnel provided ‘a security detail for a concert performance.’ Prosecutors noted that a department spreadsheet of Brown’s work schedule refers to ‘various alleys’ and no specific addresses, with Richmond police saying they had to conceal his work because of intense media attention.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Richmond Police Department said it would be ‘inappropriate to comment on a matter before the court.’
Some of the community service supposedly was done at Tappahannock Children’s Center -- an hour’s drive from Richmond and rarely visited by police, according to the report.
The detectives acknowledged that Brown’s mother, Joyce Hawkins, who had previously been the center’s director, provided verification of his appearance. The center’s current director told district attorney investigators that Brown’s mother kept track of his work and that it occurred after hours. She said the floor had been stripped and waxed several time after hours.
But a commercial floor cleaning company told investigators it had routinely cleaned and maintained the floor and ‘no one else stripped or waxed the floors,’ according to the motion.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to decline to accept Brown’s community service due to ‘at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting.’
The district attorney did not ask a judge to find Brown in violation of his probation. If he does not fulfill the obligation, he could be sent to jail.
In August 2009, Brown pleaded no contest to a felony battery charge in connection to an altercation with Rihanna a day before the Grammy Awards. He was sentenced to a year-long domestic violence class, five years probation and ordered to serve more than 180 days of labor-oriented community service. Last fall, Brown tested positive for marijuana use while in Virginia. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg revealed the test result during a September hearing, but took no action. She noted that he still had to perform 120 hours of his community service. His attorney, Mark Geragos, said at the time that Brown had finished all 1,400 hours.
Brown was in the news again recently when he allegedly assaulted singer Frank Ocean during a skirmish over a parking spot. Prosecutors did not file charges against Brown because Ocean did not want to pursue the case.
ALSO:
Chris Brown marijuana test could affect his probation
Singer Chris Brown pleads guilty to assaulting Rihanna
Chris-Brown-Frank Ocean parking lot brawl case to be closed
-- Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton
