Chris Brown’s rap sheet grows
Timeline of singer’s alleged incidents.
Almost ten years ago, on Feb. 9, 2009, Chris Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna in a bloody attack on Grammys night, an event that would change the course of both artists’ careers, and changed how the world saw Brown.
Until that point, Brown’s career had been near-blemish-free, as he built on the success of early tracks like “Run It!” and “Yo (Excuse Me Miss)” with his blazing 2007-2008 run of singles, including “Kiss Kiss,” “With You” and “Forever.” Brown seemed unstoppable, until his beating of Rihanna revealed a darker side of the star, with violent impulses -- which often included female victims -- landing him in the headlines, in courtrooms and occasionally behind bars over the next decade.
Read on for a timeline of Chris Brown’s confirmed and alleged incidents of violence over the course of his troubled past decade, from Grammys night 2009 through January’s recent rape accusation in Paris.
March 2009: Brown is charged with felony assault after an altercation with then-girlfriend Rihanna. The incident leaves her bloody and bruised, and photos of her battered face are leaked to the public. Brown pleads guilty, is sentenced to serve five years probation and
1,400 hours of community service. In Aug. 2013, he is assigned an additional
1,000 hours, to be completed before the end of his probation on Aug. 25, 2014.
March 2011: He makes headlines for smashing a window and storming out shirtless of the “Good Morning America” studios, upset that host Robin Roberts asked about Rihanna during his interview. June 2012: Brown and rapper Drake are accused of prompting a bottlesmashing brawl. November 2012: Brown goes back to court for a progress report on his 2009 domestic violence case and is cleared of a probation violation. In addition, he shocks fans after getting into a vulgar, expletive-laden Twitter exchange with comedian Jenny Johnson.
January 2013: He gets into a fight with singer Frank Ocean in a parking lot at Hollywood’s Westlake Recording Studios, according to police who were called to the scene. The fight allegedly is sparked because Brown parked his car in Ocean’s spot, with rumors circulating that Ocean dissed Rihanna and that Brown called Ocean gay slurs and threatened to shoot his entourage. In August, a member of Ocean’s entourage filed a lawsuit against Brown. The suit was later dropped.
May 2013: Brown is charged with a hit-and-run, after allegedly crashing into a car, driving away and refusing to provide his name, driver’s license and insurance info. He later turns himself in, spending about an hour in jail. He pleads not guilty and the charges are dropped in August, after Brown reaches a civil compromise with the other driver.
June 2013: A 24-year-old woman accuses Brown of assaulting her after his show at a California nightclub. Brown later tweets “I didn’t do anything,” but then deletes the tweet. The accusation was dropped when the nightclub’s reps stood by Brown, saying that they never saw him “push or touch anybody.”
Oct. 27, 2013: Brown is arrested and charged with felony assault after he and his bodyguard allegedly attacked a fan outside of the W Hotel in Washington, D.C. September 2014: Brown pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault for his alleged 2013 attack of Isaac Parker in D.C., and is sentenced to time served.
Jan. 2016: Las Vegas police investigate Brown for possible misdemeanor battery and theft charges after a woman claimed Brown attacked her at a party inside a hotel room when she tried to take a picture of him on her phone. Brown is never charged.
June 2016: Brown’s ex-manager Michael Guirguis sues him for alleged assault, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract, claiming the singer attacked him and sent him to the hospital. Guirguis would also eventually lose a bid to seize $1.5 million in assets from the singer for allegedly failing to pay commission.
August 2016: Brown is arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, with a woman claiming that Brown had pointed a gun at her face in an incident at Brown’s Los Angeles home when Brown allegedly became upset. The case is later dropped.
June 2017: Brown’s ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran wins a 5-year restraining order against him, following a hearing where she shared threatening text and voicemail messages from Brown and testified that he threatened to “beat the (expletive)” out of her.
May 2018: A woman sues Brown and claims she was raped at his home. She says Brown confiscated her phone, and when she went to his home to retrieve it, she claims she was forced to perform sex acts on his male and female friends and was raped multiple by Brown’s friend. No formal charges result from the lawsuit. July 2018: Brown is arrested by Florida police and is later released on a $2,000 cash bond. Brown had an arrest warrant issued for a felony battery case from April 2017, stemming from an incident in which the singer allegedly struck a photographer in Tampa.
January 2019: Brown is detained and questioned in Paris after a woman filed a rape complaint against him and two other men. After Brown and the other men were released, he posted a sincedeleted message on Instagram calling the accuser a liar.