Singer Chris Brown Has Been Detained in Paris After Rape Allegation

UPDATE (January 24, 2019): The Hollywood Reporter has reported that lawyer for Chris Brown filed a defamation case against Brown’s accuser to the Paris Prosecutor’s offices on the afternoon of January 24. Paris police arrested Brown two days earlier, but released him less than 24 hours later without charges. Though an investigation is said to be ongoing, Brown’s lawyer says he is free to leave the country while he cooperates with the investigation.

EARLIER:

This story contains details about rape.

Singer Chris Brown and two other people have been detained by Paris police on suspicion of rape, multiple outlets reported Tuesday. According to Reuters, the alleged assault took place on the night of January 15 in the singer’s suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. The Associated Press cites two anonymous police officials who say the 29-year-old singer was detained Monday with his bodyguard and one other person.

French magazine Closer broke the story, reporting that an unnamed 24-year-old woman allegedly met Brown at a nightclub near the Champs-Elysees before eventually following him to his hotel, where the woman alleges Brown raped her. Closer further reports that the woman says a friend of Brown’s and Brown’s bodyguard were also involved in abusing her. According to French law, judicial police can hold Brown for 24 hours. The two other men accused are also being held.

It has been a decade since Brown’s first run-ins with the law over allegations and/or charges of violence against women or assault. Brown was charged in 2009 with felony assault and for making criminal threats against his then-girlfriend Rihanna. He received five years’ probation and community service.

In 2013, the singer, along with his bodyguard, were arrested and charged with assault after a brawl outside a hotel in Washington, DC. Later that same year, Brown was kicked out of a rehab facility after smashing the window of his mother’s car during a family counseling session, which resulted in Brown being hit with a probation violation, sending the singer to jail.

Brown was arrested last July after a concert in West Palm Beach, Florida, on a felony battery charge stemming from an April 2017 incident when he was accused of punching a man who photographed him without permission.

In 2017, the courts awarded Brown’s ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran a five-year restraining order after the model testified that her then-boyfriend threatened to kill her over text messages. Tran also testified that Brown punched her and threw her down a flight of stairs during an argument. The couple split in 2014.

Neither Brown’s representatives, nor reps from his record label, Sony Music, have commented on the incident in Paris. Sony recently parted ways with Brown’s labelmate, R. Kelly. 

(Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Riveting Entertainment)