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Chris Brown’s lawyer works to free singer from jail

Posted at 11:04 AM, Mar 17, 2014
and last updated 2014-03-17 11:04:19-04

LOS ANGELES (CNN) — Chris Brown’s lawyer will try to persuade a Los Angeles judge to let the singer out of jail Monday.

The singer was locked up on a probation violation warrant Friday after he was booted from a court-ordered drug rehab program for undisclosed reasons.

When his probation for the 2009 beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna was revoked in November, the judge allowed Brown, 24, to enter a Malibu rehab facility instead of the Los Angeles County jail. His ejection from rehab after four months left jail as the only alternative.

If attorney Mark Geragos is unsuccessful in persuading Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin to set Brown free at a hearing Monday afternoon, it is likely he will remain in jail until the next hearing on April 23.

Brown was “cooperative when taken into custody” as he was picked up from the facility and taken to the Los Angeles County men’s central jail Friday afternoon, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s statement said.

Brown’s legal troubles began five years ago, when he beat Rihanna as the two sat in a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street. He pleaded guilty to felony assault in June 2009, which resulted in a sentence of five years of probation and 1,400 hours of community labor.

The judge has revoked Brown’s probation twice in the past year, most recently because of his arrest on a sidewalk near the White House after allegedly punching a man.

Brown voluntarily entered a rehab program a day after being released from a Washington jail in October, but he was kicked out a few days later for “throwing a rock through his mother’s car window” after a family session at the center, a probation report said. Brown was upset because his mother said she wanted him to stay in treatment, the report said.

“Mr. Brown proceeded to walk outside and pick up a rock and threw it through his mother’s car window and it shattered,” according to letter from the rehab center included in the probation report.

His probation was revoked in November, but the judge allowed him to stay out of jail by entering a 90-day anger management and drug rehab program. Although he completed that program last month, the judge ordered him to remain a resident at the Malibu treatment facility until a hearing April 23.

Brown’s probation officer reported at a hearing last month that the singer “continues to make great improvement” in dealing with anger, stress and drugs, but the judge decided he could not go free until after his trial for the assault charge in Washington on April 17. If he is convicted in that case, the judge would decide April 23 whether Brown should complete his probation in jail.

Brown has been working on a highway cleanup labor crew in Los Angeles three days a week to fulfill the 750 hours of service remaining in his probation requirements, his probation report said. At that rate, Brown could complete the labor in mid-October and possibly be free from probation requirements by the end of the year. However, the clock is stopped while Brown is locked up.

CNN’s Carolyn Sung contributed to this report.