LOS ANGELES (AP) - There is no credible evidence that Chris Brown completed the community service he was required to do in the beating of Rihanna, and he should be forced to repeat six months of manual labor in Los Angeles, prosecutors told a judge Tuesday.
A motion by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says the records submitted to prove Brown finished the community labor sentenced by Virginia authorities contain numerous discrepancies and that the R&B singer was essentially unsupervised.
Brown was ordered to serve five years on probation and perform six months of community labor after he pleaded guilty in the February 2009 assault on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna.
The motion states Brown could face additional misdemeanor penalties because of the community service records. Prosecutors are recommending that his probation be revoked at a hearing on Wednesday.
Investigators from Los Angeles traveled to Virginia to try to verify that Brown had worked all the hours as reported by the Richmond Police Department, but they were unable to confirm it, the motion said.
“This inquiry provided no credible, competent or verifiable evidence that defendant Brown performed his community labor as presented to this court,” Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray wrote.
The records submitted by Richmond Police Chief Bryan Norwood are “at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting.”
Richmond Police spokesman Gene Lepley declined to discuss the allegations.
“We believe it would inappropriate to comment on a matter that’s before the court,” Lepley said. A phone and email message for Brown’s attorney Mark Geragos was not immediately returned.
Brown was allowed to perform his community labor in his home state of Virginia. Richmond police submitted paperwork last year indicating Brown had completed his sentence, but the logs showed the singer performing double shifts in the city and at a day care center where his mother once worked.
According to the motion, officials with Virginia’s probation office told investigators that Brown’s arrangement to be supervised by Norwood was “extremely unusual” and had not been approved by the agency. No one from Virginia’s probation department oversaw Brown’s hours, the filing states.
The motion notes that the only records the department has to indicate Brown was supervised were overtime sheets. Five of 21 days that officers logged overtime for Brown were spent providing security for the singer’s concerts.
One-third of Brown’s hours were logged at a daycare center where the singer spent time as a child and where his mother once served as director, an analysis performed by The Associated Press in September showed.
The center is an hour’s drive from Richmond, and the prosecution motion states that a detective checked on Brown on only nine occasions when he was working there. Each time, the singer was found at the center, accompanied by his mother and a bodyguard, but no law enforcement personnel.
The hours Brown recorded as working at the center were done overnight when children were not present. Some of the records stated Brown waxed floors or did “general cleaning.”
“Claims that the defendant cleaned, stripped and waxed floors at that location have been credibly contradicted,” the prosecution motion states. A professional floor cleaner contracted to work at the daycare center told investigators he had been cleaning the floors throughout the months Brown reported working at the facility.
Brown’s mother, Joyce Hawkins, no longer had a formal role at the Tappahannock Children’s Center, but had her own set of keys and coordinated her son’s work at the facility, the motion states.
The filing also alleges Brown violated his probation with several violent outbursts that haven’t resulted in arrests or charges. The prosecution motion cites a fight last month between Brown and Frank Ocean, an incident in Miami in which Brown allegedly took a woman’s cellphone and a March 2011 incident in which Brown threw a chair through a window after appearing on “Good Morning America” and being asked about the Rihanna beating.
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Anthony McCartney can be reached at https://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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