Chris Brown Pleads Guilty

06/23/09 1:08pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Chris Brown has avoided jail time by pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna.

Brown made a last-minute plea deal on Monday at a preliminary hearing in a California court. As part of the deal, Brown must serve 180 days of community labour in his home state of Virginia that must involve either graffiti removal or roadside clean-up. He has been ordered to stay away from Rihanna for five years.

The former couple have to stay 50 yards away from each other and must be 10 yards apart at all industry events, according to the U.K.'s The Guardian newspaper, which also reported Rihanna would violate the order if she were to approach Brown during the five-year time span.

The two are not allowed to contact each other and Rihanna had reportedly not requested the order. Rihanna was reportedly set to testify at the hearing, but was not permitted to enter the courtroom due to the new court order.

Brown must also complete one year of domestic violence classes and pay fines for his actions, and should he violate the terms of his probation he faces four years in jail. He will be sentenced in August.

Brown was arrested after an incident in his rented Lamborghini in the early hours of Feb. 8 before the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. It was alleged he had assaulted Rihanna, who was then his girlfriend. TMZ later published a photo of someone it said was Rihanna, which showed her with a split lip, bloody nose and bruises and swelling on her face. Other reports surfaced that Brown had screamed he was going to kill Rihanna at the time of the incident and had choked her.

Brown and Rihanna reunited after the incident, but Brown was later charged with felony assault likely to cause great bodily injury and making criminal threats. Brown originally pleaded not guilty to the charges.