After nearly six years, R&B singer Chris Brown was released Friday from probation stemming from his February 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna in Hancock Park.
An ecstatic Brown beamed when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin declared that the singer had met all the terms of his probation. He hugged his attorney, Mark Geragos, and even shook hands with the prosecutor handling his case.
“IM OFF PROBATION!!!!!!! Thank the Lord!!!!!” Brown posted on his Twitter page shortly after the court hearing ended.
Brandlin said Brown, 25, had completed his roughly 1,000 hours of community labor, along with all the other terms of his probation, which included a domestic violence treatment program.
Brandlin also said he was convinced Brown had no involvement in a pair of shootings that occurred while he was present — one at a San Jose nightclub where five people were injured, and another last year in West Hollywood where Marion “Suge” Knight was wounded.
The judge said the most recent report from the Probation Department indicated Brown had been compliant and cooperative.
Brown pleaded guilty in June 2009 to assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury for assaulting Rihanna during an argument that began about 12:30 a.m. Feb. 8, 2009, while the singers were in a rented Lamborghini in Hancock Park after attending a pre-Grammy Awards party.
Brown was sentenced to five years probation, a yearlong domestic violence program — which he completed — and 180 days of community labor.
Brown’s probation was first revoked in summer 2013 after he was charged with a pair of misdemeanors and an infraction stemming from a traffic crash in Toluca Lake. Those charges were later dismissed.
His probation was reinstated in August 2013, when Brandlin ordered the singer to perform an additional 1,000 hours of community labor.
It was revoked again after he was accused in Washington, D.C., of punching a 20-year-old man who was trying to get a photo with him a year ago. Last March, Brown was arrested after he was tossed out of a Malibu substance- abuse and anger-management facility, where he had been for about four months.
Brandlin previously said the singer made troubling remarks during a group therapy session, discussing his use of guns and knives.
Brown admitted violating his probation and was ordered to spend another 131 days in county jail, but he was released after less than a month, and his probation was reinstated.
