A Complete Timeline Of Chris Brown's Legal Troubles

The following article includes allegations of domestic abuse and sexual assault, and mentions of addiction.

Chris Brown's meteoric rise to fame has been largely overshadowed by a myriad of legal issues and abuse allegations, starting with his assault on Rihanna in 2009. The world saw the horrific photos. The singer, himself, admitted he "felt like a f***king monster." The Internet went through the trouble of calling out stars like Ed Sheeran and Kendall Jenner for appearing in the star's music video, and Snapchat's stock reportedly lost $800 million after an ad made fun of his infamous domestic violence incident. There have been petitions and think pieces urging for accountability, yet miraculously, Brown's career has largely been unscathed. In fact, it's thriving.

Spotify axed alleged abusers like R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from branded playlists as part of their hate content and hateful conduct policy, but Brown remains. His whopping eight platinum albums spawned over 115 different singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Even in 2021, the singer is still as popular as ever. "Go Crazy," Brown's single with Young Thug, has been certified platinum six times — but will there be a breaking point?

As Brown's controversy continues to grow, here's a chronological look at his numerous legal troubles.

2009 was a big year for both Chris Brown and his then-girlfriend Rihanna. At the time, they were the ultimate power couple — two fresh-faced Hollywood stars who met as teens and, by all accounts, would inevitably spend their 20s on the Billboard charts and fielding a trail of paparazzi. That year, the pair was set to perform at the Grammy Awards, and both received numerous nominations, but neither of them made it to the ceremony.

Rihanna canceled her appearance following a pre-Grammy party after an argument with Brown over a text message from another woman turned violent. Per the police report obtained by CNN, Brown "punched" the singer in the left eye before driving away and continuing "to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand." Rihanna was hospitalized and left with visible facial injuries (the disturbing photos later circled around the internet) and Brown was arrested.

Brown pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault, and he was sentenced to five years probation, community service, and one year of domestic violence counseling. Rihanna eventually opened up about the incident — which was the first of many for Brown. "The more in love we became, the more dangerous we became for each other, equally dangerous," she told "20/20" (via CNN). "Because it was a bit of an obsession."

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

For the next couple of years, Chris Brown more or less stayed out of trouble. The star focused on his career, which inexplicably didn't seem all that affected by his bad press. In fact, it managed to reach new heights. In 2011, when Rihanna agreed to downgrade her restraining order, Brown took home his first Grammy for his fourth studio album, "F.A.M.E." Unfortunately, the album's release was overshadowed by the star's violent behavior.

The day the record dropped, Brown appeared on "Good Morning America" to perform the lead single, "Yeah 3x." Things ended up taking a sour turn when co-anchor Robin Roberts asked the singer about his relationship with Rihanna in light of the newly relaxed restraining order. Though Brown tried to pivot the focus towards his music, Roberts kept pushing, and the star became noticeably aggravated.

The moment Brown finished his performance, he stormed off the set and retreated to his dressing room, where he broke a window in a loud scuffle. The window was only discovered after some staffers notified security of the noise, but by then, Brown had already emerged shirtless from the wreckage and high-tailed it out of the building. No, he didn't even bother to put on a shirt before leaving (as documented in the now-infamous paparazzi photos). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brown was informed of the questions beforehand, so Roberts was "shocked" by his response.

Rihanna and Drake have a storied history, and Chris Brown directly inserted himself in the middle during a violent New York City nightclub brawl that left at least five people with injuries. The carnage — and the horrifying, bloody photos – aren't exactly surprising considering the fight was primarily sustained by an artillery of glass bottles, ice cubes, and cocktail glasses that were thrown by feuding rap entourages. Even Brown emerged with a gnarly gash on his chin, but what exactly happened isn't clear.

It all went down at a birthday party for one of Ne-Yo's managers at the SoHo nightclub W.i.P. Apparently, tensions had been growing between Brown (who was in town for a "Today" show appearance) and Drake and Meek Mill (who were both fielding Rihanna romance rumors). From there, accounts vary. Some reports say Brown sent a bottle of champagne to Drake, who returned it. There may or may not have been a derogatory note about Rihanna involved. Other accounts say Drake's entourage stoked the fight as Brown left the club, and further reports say Drake started it by yelling at Brown (though Drake's camp claimed that the fight was actually between Brown and Meek Mill).

All we really know is that bottles were smashed, and both Drizzy and Brown were sued for $16 million by the nightclub and its adjoining venue. The singers won the suit.

Chris Brown didn't limit his rap-related feuds to Drake. In 2013, he took aim at Frank Ocean. Again, it involved an entourage. This time, instead of a nightclub, the colosseum was a recording studio parking lot. Instead of ice and bottles, the ammo was reportedly homophobic slurs, gun threats, and fists.

According to TMZ, who obtained a copy of the police report, Ocean claimed the brawl began over a parking space and escalated when he refused to shake Brown's hand. The singer then allegedly "punched him in the face" before two members of Brown's entourage "pushed him into a corner and attempted to kick him." Ocean also claimed that someone called him a "f****t" and that "Brown threatened to shoot him." The fight lasted just two to three minutes, and Brown reportedly fled before cops arrived.

Once again, Brown managed to avoid accountability for his alleged violence. Ocean sustained a cut on his temple and index finger (the latter threatened his Grammy performance) but decided not to press charges. Though it was reported that Brown was investigated for misdemeanor battery, the case was closed and no one was arrested.

Chris Brown struggled to manage his five years of probation following his felony assault conviction — he was even forced to postpone his 2010 European tour after he was denied entry to the U.K. because of his violent behavior. In theory, all the singer had to do was lay low and wait for his probation to run out, but instead, he was allegedly involved in numerous brawls that were splashed across the tabloids. Weirdly enough, that wasn't what got his probation revoked.

Brown's probation was reviewed in 2012 after the singer's travel raised concerns and he tested positive for marijuana while doing community service in Virginia. Not long after, a District Attorney raised questions about whether or not he had faked his community service hours. Nonetheless, it wasn't until later in 2013 that Brown's probation was actually revoked after he was involved in an alleged hit-and-run accident in Los Angeles.

Brown was charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run and driving without a valid license. During the court case, the prosecutor claimed (via AP) that Brown "went ballistic" after his Range Rover rear-ended a woman's Mercedes. The charges were ultimately dropped, and Brown was slapped with an additional 1,000 hours of community labor, where he had the choice to either do highway or beach cleanup, graffiti removal, or general maintenance work.

Just as Chris Brown was smoothing out his probation problems from his first felony assault conviction, he was slapped with a second assault conviction. In 2013, the singer was arrested with his bodyguard in Washington D.C. after he allegedly punched a fan who tried to jump into a photo, breaking the fan's nose.

Both Brown and his bodyguard were ultimately convicted. The bodyguard ended up having to spend a year on probation and complete 24 hours of community service, but Brown's sentence was far more serious because he was already on probation for felony assault. Pleading guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault helped him avoid a longer jail sentence, but he was still sentenced to a year in jail for violating parole.

At the end of the day, there were no jailhouse recording sessions or record contracts like those seen by some of the rappers who served jail time before him. Brown didn't end up staying behind bars very long because, as he managed to cash in 234 days of time previously served. When it came to the actual assault, Brown ended up serving no additional time.

The same year that Chris Brown allegedly punched both Frank Ocean and a photo-hungry fan, he voluntarily checked himself into rehab. The star reportedly aimed to understand the cause behind his violent behavior, but this was apparently a short-lived endeavor. Brown was booted from rehab for — you guessed it — the same type of violent behavior that sent him there in the first place.

CNN reported that Brown was kicked out of the facility after he "smash[ed] his mother's car window during a family session." This landed him in court-ordered rehab for 90 days, where it seemed like the singer was finally going to get some actual help.

Doctors reportedly diagnosed Brown with PTSD and bipolar disorder, and he spent his stay learning how to control his impulses. He was actually making real progress when his stay was extended by an additional two months in early 2014. Those two months were never completed because Brown was booted for violating a number of rehab rules.

Not long after leaving jail, Chris Brown found himself in the midst of a handful of assault investigations — two of which took place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. First, in 2015, the star was accused of punching a man at a basketball game, but the man dropped the charges. Then, on the weekend of New Year's Day, the singer was accused of battering a woman who tried to take his picture and stealing her cell phone during a party at one of the resort's hotel rooms. Brown released a statement to People, claiming the accusations were "unequivocally untrue" and that the woman was booted by security for "wild behavior" and a "total meltdown." He was never charged.

In between those two incidents, Brown popped over to Denver, Colorado to film a music video with French Montana and Fetty Wap. That's where the third incident went down. A woman claimed she was forcibly kicked out of the singer's tour bus outside of a strip club after violating the production's no cell phone rules (though, she wasn't actually part of the video). The scuffle was allegedly rough enough that her phone became a casualty, and she filed a report for third degree assault.

Again, Brown was never charged. The woman in question opted against pursuing the case. The moral of the story, don't try to take Brown's photo.

Chris Brown has seemingly built a rapport with various police departments across the country — and his career was more or less impervious to his bad behavior. Sadly, the same did not allegedly go for his team. In 2016, the singer was sued by Mike "Mike G" Guirguis, the big-time manager who Brown supposedly hired in 2012 to repair his sullied image after the Rihanna assault, for assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.

Guirguis claimed that he not only helped Brown regain a favorable public opinion, he also helped the star seek treatment for his various anger and substance use issues. The manager alleged that, during the horrific incident, the star trapped him in a room and punched him multiple times in the face and neck unprovoked. The alleged assault was so brutal that Guirguis was hospitalized.

In response to the suit, Brown claimed that he had fired Guirguis for stealing money. This prompted Guirguis to mull over a defamation charge. The matter was reportedly privately settled in 2019.

By 2016, Chris Brown's rap sheet was so long and convoluted that even his lawyer probably had a hard time keeping track of his run-ins with the law. All we know is that his bad behavior eventually culminated in a SWAT team standoff — which seemed like it would be the climax of the singer's supervillain downfall. In truth, most people don't remember it even happened.

According to TMZ, who captured the star's litany of Instagram posts taunting the cops as he was sequestered inside his home like Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, it all began when Baylee Curran, a beauty pageant contestant, called 911 claiming the singer brandished a gun on her during a party in his Los Angeles mansion. As police surrounded the property waiting for a search warrant, the singer allegedly threw a duffel bag containing weapons and drugs out of his window while antagonizing officers via Instagram with pithy one-liners like "Come and get me" and "F*** the police."

Brown's entourage (including Ray J) eventually began filtering out of the house one by one. It took about 11 hours, but police finally received their warrant and searched the property as Brown emerged from his fortress. Brown was arrested and booked on assault with a deadly weapon. Despite the drama, the case never appeared to go anywhere.

A SWAT Team standoff seemed like the ultimate Hollywood ending to Chris Brown's story arc as a music industry supervillain — but alas, he kept trudging forward. In 2017, the singer's on-and-off girlfriend Karrueche Tran won a five-year restraining order against the star after testifying in court.

The actor shared numerous threatening text messages and voicemails that Brown had left her in the wake of their breakup. He reportedly started getting aggressive when she refused to return the diamond rings that he had given her. Eventually, it escalated to violent threats, including "b***h I will beat the s**t out of you" and "I promise you I will make your life hell," per TMZ. Tran also testified that Brown "told a few people that he was going to kill me" and threatened to "take me out" and "shoot me."

This apparently wasn't the first time Brown was violent towards his ex, either. Tran told the judge that Brown "punched me in my stomach twice" and "pushed me down the stairs" a few years prior.

In 2018, Chris Brown took a break from his string of violent crimes to try something new. In an offense that served as a faint homage to Justin Bieber's wild-child phase, Brown allegedly was caught with an illegal pet. Monkeys — which appear to be quite popular in the world of celebrity animal-related crimes — require strict permits, none of which Brown allegedly had when brought home a baby capuchin monkey named Fiji and started posting pictures of it online with his daughter, Royalty.

The photos sparked concern from fans, who were worried that the exotic pet was a danger to Brown's 3-year-old. Someone ended up tipping off the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who discovered during an investigation that Brown, indeed, did not have a permit.

Rather than another SWAT team standoff, the singer handed over the monkey before cops had to raid his house. He was charged with two counts of having a restricted species without a permit and faced up to a year in prison. Brown ultimately avoided serious repercussions by giving up the monkey for good and agreeing to never purchase a monkey ever again.

For most of Chris Brown's career, his alleged risky substance use has taken a backseat as tabloids focused on his violent behavior. It wasn't until 2017 that Billboard blew the lid on the singer's alleged issues with cocaine, Xanax, marijuana, Molly, and lean. This seemed to play a role in two sexual assault claims that involved the singer.

In 2017, Brown allegedly held a drug-fueled sex party where a woman claimed she was raped by one of Brown's friends and coerced to have sex with a woman who was menstruating, Brown himself, and another man. Cops ultimately couldn't determine if the acts were consensual, and Brown reportedly settled the matter in private.

In 2019, Brown was arrested in Paris, along with two other people, for alleged sexual assault and drug charges. A woman claimed that Brown — and his bodyguard and friend — raped her in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel after they met at a club near the Champs-Élysées. In a post on his Instagram (via The New York Times), Brown claimed the woman was "lying." Though the investigation was ongoing, he was released without being charged.

Since 2012, it seems like Chris Brown hasn't gone a single year without getting into legal trouble. Only in 2020 — when the music industry ground to a halt and people sheltered indoors — was there a rare sense of calm in the singer's world (or at least the version of his world that we see through the tabloids). Judging by his Instagram account, he spent a lot of that time being a dad and hanging out with his two children, but that sense of calm was quickly shattered in 2021.

In late June, police responded to a call at Brown's home in the San Fernando Valley. This turned into a battery investigation after a woman claimed she was hit by the singer. The slap was allegedly so hard that it forced a part of her weave to come out, though there were no reported injuries and no arrests. It was reported that Brown wasn't even home when police showed up on the scene, and the rapper didn't responded beyond an Instagram Story (via E! News) where he wrote, "Y'all so d*mn [baseball cap emoji]" (for reference, cap is slang for a lie). Charges ended up never being filed against the singer.

We now know the real reason why Chris Brown was sued by his housekeeper – she alleged that Brown's dog Hades mauled her and that the singer had the dog euthanized in order to hide evidence. In 2021, the former housekeeper, Maria Avila, filed a lawsuit with the LA County Superior Court that detailed the horrific attack. The victim revealed that the dog reportedly tore chunks of flesh from her face, arms, and other body parts. She also claimed that she cried for help during the ordeal to no avail. "She is screaming in terror and calling out for help, yet no one came to her assistance," attorney Nancy Doumanian wrote on the victim's behalf (via NBC News).

After the attack, which Avila says left her disfigured, the suit recalled Brown standing over her and talking to someone on his cell phone. She later found out that Brown had allegedly arranged for the dog to be taken to a location 600 miles away and euthanized by the Humboldt County authorities. Avila claimed that this was in an effort to erase any potential evidence and defer any blame that could have fallen back on the singer.

Brown and his representatives didn't comment on the matter until 2025, when the R&B performer was ordered to submit evidence per a court order related to his financial standing. Avila had pressed the court for access to Brown's financial records as part of her whopping $90 million lawsuit against Brown. The singer's reps hit back at the request and the validity of the lawsuit itself. "The injuries complained of by [Avila] were proximately caused by [her] misconduct in that she willfully and voluntarily teased, abused, or mistreated the dog and thereby provoked the attack," a statement from Brown's team stated (via InTouch). The rebuttal went on to claim that Brown did help his former employee by calling the paramedics and removing the dog from the room, while asking the court to prevent the plaintiff from be granted access to his private information.

In 2021, Chris Brown's controversies continued to stack up with additional copyright infringement lawsuits. Brown was sued by several entities claiming that multiple singles, including "Privacy" and "Pills and Automobiles," all took parts of other artists' songs without proper credit. For "Privacy," Brown received a suit from U.K.-based music firm Greensleeves, who claimed that the R&B artist copied a line from the 1997 dance hall song, "Tight Up Skirt" by Red Rat. Ironically, Red Rat himself was not directly involved in the lawsuit, as his record label VP Records were the ones to file looking for $1.5 million in damages and loss of profits. While Brown never spoke publicly about the matter, his and record company Sony's lawyers hit back at the claims by saying (via DanceHallMag) the pieces of the song "constitute a fair use." The lawsuit eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in 2022.

As for "Pills and Automobiles," Brown was sued by Brandon Saunders, aka "Sqooby" for allegedly lifting lyrics from his song "Wet" and inserting them into the chorus of Brown's song. Despite the "Run It" crooner's multiple attempts to be removed from the copyright infringement lawsuit, both were rejected by federal judges. The case was eventually dropped in 2023 after Sqooby and Brown mutually agreed to leave the case.

Even though we now know the real reason that Drake and Chris Brown ended their feud, the two still faced trouble through not just one, but two copyright lawsuits over their smash 2019 collaboration, "No Guidance." The first suit was dropped in 2022, but a second suit followed in 2024, where Tykeiya Dore and Marc Stephens claimed that the song ripped off snippets of their track, "I Got It," which came out in 2016. "The defendants' intentionally 'masked' the unlawful use of the title of the plaintiffs' song and chorus 'I got it' by using the title 'No Guidance', which is mentioned nowhere in the chorus, and they changed 'I got it' to 'You got it,'" the plaintiffs stated in their lawsuit (via Music Business Worldwide).

And it wasn't just the two megastars that were sued for "No Guidance." Dore and Stephens named seven other writers and producers of the song, Sony Music Entertainment's RCA Records label, and even YouTube and parent company Alphabet (which runs Google) to allege that all of them had gained monetary profit from "No Guidance." YouTube has since deleted Stephens' YouTube channel citing "fraudulent" content reporting concerns on the music video for "No Guidance."

Chris Brown's rap sheet is no stranger to legal suits stemming from situations both public and private, but he's also been named in larger suits that involved others. In July 2024, he and his entourage — which included Sinko Ceej, Hood Boss, and Yella Beezy — were sued by four concertgoers following an alleged assault that occurred backstage at one of Brown's concerts in Fort Worth, Texas. The suit, which also targeted tour promoter Live Nation, asked for a sum of $50 million to compensate for injuries sustained and other stressors. "No [one] should have to endure what these clients endured," the plaintiffs' attorney Tony Buzbee said in a statement to Variety. "We will seek the maximum amount of damages allowed by law for this egregious conduct."

According to the accusers' claims, Brown had previous issues with one of the concertgoers, and when the plaintiffs appeared backstage after the concert, Brown and his buddies began to assault them one by one by throwing punches and chairs, even as one attempted to flee down a staircase. All of the victims were treated for their injuries at the hospital.

But that's not all. A second lawsuit was filed that stemmed from the same incident, this one by a security guard who claimed that he was injured while trying to protect the concertgoers during what he described (via Los Angeles Times) as a "prison yard beat down ... without justifiable provocation." This suit asked for $1 million in damages. Brown, for his part, has not spoken publicly about the matter, but did hire a Dallas-based lawyer to represent him. Brown's defense claimed that the opposite occurred during the interaction and that Brown himself was unjustly attacked. "They were seeking trouble and are directly responsible for the situation that ensued," Brown's attorney Levi G. McCathern, II said in a statement (via 107.3 KISSFM).

While we know many of the celebs who have beef with Chris Brown, that hasn't limited the singer to fighting with just other individuals. In January 2025, Brown filed a massive $500 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery as a result of the bombshell documentary the company produced, "Chris Brown: A History of Violence." The lawsuit also stated that a portion of the requested sum would be donated to survivors of sexual abuse.

In the suit, his team alleged that the piece, which details Brown's tragic real life story along with harrowing details of his past assaults and charges, featured disputed allegations of sexual assault and other false claims that the producers knowingly included. "Their actions exhibit actual malice, as they prioritized profit over facts, ignoring publicly available court records and other credible evidence," the court statement read (via The Hollywood Reporter).

At the heart of the documentary is the story of one of Brown's alleged victims, known as Jane Doe for anonymity reasons, and her recount of the sexual assault and battery she experienced during her time with Brown in Miami in 2022. She initially sued the entertainer, but the lawsuit was dismissed. Brown's team reasoned that the producers knowingly falsified the situation in the documentary and did not make editorial changes after Brown alerted them to this. The team even noted that the R&B star had a restraining order against Jane Doe as a result of her erratic behavior and own "history of violence." But the producers of the film through Investigation Discovery refused to go down without a fight and responded that they planned to defend their work as accurate and truthful. "We stand behind the production and will vigorously defend ourselves against this lawsuit," the group said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter).

In 2025, the world saw what another of Chris Brown's experiences behind bars had really been like when the star was arrested in the United Kingdom while on his "Breezy Bowl XX" tour. While his tours are known for their wild antics, including some over their over-the-top meet and greet photos, this situation stemmed from a non-performing event at a London nightclub.

In May 2025, the "Turn Up The Music" singer was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm after allegedly attacking a music producer with a tequila bottle at London area Mayfair nightclub Tape. Brown was held in custody for several days and initially denied bail. He was later released on a 5 million euro bail, and he resumed his tour. "From the cage to the stage!" he wrote in an Instagram story (via BBC) upon his release.

That's not the end of this case, though. The Grammy Award-winner was scheduled to appear in court on June 20 in between tour dates in Cardiff and London. Conditions of his bail included that he had to surrender his passport if not on tour and that he had to specify his address to the court and avoid all contact with the alleged victim and the Tape nightclub.

If you or anyone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, has been a victim of sexual assault, or needs help with addiction issues, contact the relevant resources below:

• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

• Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).