Chris Brown’s legal history: does it hinder?
RECENT ASSAULT ACCUSATION LEAVES MUSIC FANS DIVIDED
The celebrity artist once again finds himself bound by the law after a man named Isaac Adams Parker reported that Brown and his bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, assaulted him outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., last October.
Parker said in his report to the police that Brown attacked him after he tried to join in a photo that Brown was taking with a fan.
A D.C. court found Hollosy guilty of assault on April 21, which complicated Brown’s defense. Initially, Hollosy was scheduled to testify in Brown’s trial, but he will not be able to speak until after his appeal. Prosecutors did not grant him immunity.
“The cynic in me would say that, apparently, it is not a search for the truth,” said Brown’s lawyer Mark Geragos, according to CNN. “Because if they wanted the truth, they would give Hollosy immunity and allow him to testify.”
Prosecutors doubted that Hollosy would tell the truth even if granted immunity.
As a result of the prosecutor’s decision, the Los Angeles County Superior Court refused Brown’s request for release from custody. He will remain in jail until the status hearing about his probation in May.
Although Brown’s lawyer believes that the court gave Brown too severe a punishment for a misdemeanor charge, others find the ruling to be a confirmation of Brown’s violent character. To them, his run-ins with the law are reasons not to listen to his music.
Brown’s most notorious conviction was when he was charged with beating his then-girlfriend, Rihanna Fenty, in his silver Lamborghini near a Los Angeles neighborhood.
“The assault scandals would personally deter me from listening to his music because those are not victimless crimes, and the level of violence in the Rihanna assault is especially chilling,” said Parke Puterbaugh, part-time lecturer in music. “I could not listen to his music without my enjoyment being clouded by my sense of his character.”
However, loyal fans do not take Brown’s background into consideration when judging his music.
“Talent is talent,” said Person High School senior Dre Herbin. “I do not view Chris Brown’s music any differently. I just look down on him as person rather than an artist.”
Many people seem to share Herbin’s sentiment, as Brown’s career was not harmed by the Rihanna incident.
His album “Graffiti,” which was released the same year as his conviction for assault, managed to debut at number seven on the Billboard 200 list. He also took home the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album two years later for “F.A.M.E.”
“I think Chris Brown was still able to succeed because, in such a capitalistic society, money and fame trump morals,” said Early College senior Saidivya Komma. “So, regardless of what a person does, their fame and fortune hold more value than their personality.”