Update, 9:00 p.m. EDT:
The charge against Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Chris Brown has been reduced to a misdemeanor and he was ordered released Monday after his arrest Sunday following an altercation outside a Washington hotel.
WASHINGTON — Chris Brown is accused of punching a man who says he tried to get into a photo with the singer outside a hotel, according to police, the latest legal trouble for the Grammy Award-winning artist.
Chris Brown
The 24-year-old singer is expected to appear in court Monday on a felony assault charge. Another man, Christopher Hollosy, also was charged with felony assault in the altercation that started just before 4:30 a.m. Sunday, police say. It happened near the W Hotel, not far from the White House.
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The altercation began after the man tried to get into a picture with Brown and two other people, according to his account in the police report, which quotes the man as saying Brown told him, “I’m not down with that gay shit” and “I feel like boxing.”
The exact context of Brown’s remarks was not immediately clear.
The man told police Brown punched him in the face, and police say the area around his nose was swollen and bruised. Another man stepped between them and also punched the man before grabbing Brown by the arm and leading him toward the tour bus, according to the report.
Brown and Hollosy, 35, were being held pending a court hearing Monday.
Neither Brown’s publicists nor his attorney Mark Geragos responded to messages left Sunday. A local lawyer for Brown did not immediately return a message Monday seeking comment, and Hollosy’s attorney declined comment Monday ahead of the court appearance.
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He was released Sunday from a hospital and did not immediately respond to a message left at a number listed for him.
Brown remains on probation for assaulting his on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 just before the Grammy Awards. The photos of Rihanna’s bruised face caused outrage among many fans. Brown pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault and received five years’ probation.
His probation was briefly revoked earlier this year after a traffic accident. A hit-and-run charge was dropped against him, but the judge gave him 1,000 more hours of community service when he reinstated his probation.
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