Maintain children or face jail, Brown told
A Massachusetts family court judge has ordered troubled R&B singer Bobby Brown to be jailed for 90 days, unless or until he pays €60,100 child support to the mother of his two children.
Brown, released early from a Georgia jail so he could attend the contempt hearing, cried as he was led from the courtroom. He is to be jailed in the Norfolk County House of Correction.
Judge Paula Carey issued the ruling after Brown, husband of singer Whitney Houston, said he was unable to pay support he owes for children, now 12 and 14, that he fathered with Kim Ward.
Brown, 35, was released on Monday, three days early, from the Georgia jail where he had been serving a 60-day sentence for breaching probation over a drink-driving charge.
He is also charged with battery after he allegedly hit Houston, leaving her with a bruised cheek and a cut lip. He is due to appear on May 5 in a Fulton County, Georgia, court.
Carey said the financial statement the troubled former pop star provided the court “lacks all credibility”, and declined his lawyers’ offers to pay €9,000 by the end of yesterday, an additional €15,000 within 10 days and negotiate the rest.
Brown, who was more than four hours late for the hearing, testified in a hushed voice, telling the judge that he was unable to pay because he had no job and no income.
“I never wanted this to happen,” he said.
His lawyer, Vincent Dimmock, said although Brown had been a successful pop singer in the 1980s and early 1990s, he has “been nowhere near that in recent years”.
Brown said he planned to have an album out within 30 days and begin production of a film in Los Angeles. But after the judge was told Brown had not received an advance for the album, she said: “I don’t find it credible that no money has been advanced at all.”
Ward’s lawyer, Linda Medonis, said her client sought the money only on her children’s behalf.
Brown left R&B group New Edition in the late 1980s for a solo career. His hits include My Prerogative and Every Little Step, but he has become more famous for his numerous brushes with the law and his turbulent marriage with Houston.
Houston, who recently checked herself into a drug rehabilitation centre, did not attend yesterday’s hearing.
