Reduced Time...

[From Reuters]

Atlanta Jail Time Reduced for Singer Bobby Brown

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Rhythm and blues singer Bobby Brown will not have to serve the remainder of an eight-day jail sentence for drunken driving after he is discharged from an Atlanta hospital, police said on Wednesday.

Brown, the husband of pop diva Whitney Houston, was officially released by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department late on Tuesday, several hours after he was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital with an undisclosed ailment.

Brown, 33, was sentenced to eight days in jail on Friday after pleading guilty to a 1996 drunken driving charge. He was released early under a county policy that cuts a quarter of an inmate's sentence for good behavior, said Mikki Jones, public information officer with the sheriff's department.

"He was released last night on time served," Jones said. "He has to do 240 hours of community service and there was a $2,600 fine."

A Grady Memorial spokeswoman said Brown's condition was good, but would not say why the singer had been hospitalized.

Brown, who faced additional charges in connection with his 1996 arrest of failure to show proof of insurance, speeding and failing to maintain a lane while driving, infuriated a DeKalb County judge last week by appearing at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles.

DeKalb County State Court Judge Wayne Purdom said the appearance violated the conditions of Brown's bond, which had stipulated the singer could not leave Georgia before his trial. Purdom subsequently issued an arrest warrant for Brown.

Known for his hit songs "My Prerogative" and "Every Little Step," Brown has a history of run-ins with the law dating back to his youth in Boston.

He was held in a Florida jail for 26 days in 2000 for violating probation in connection with an incident at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. That same year, he pleaded no contest to charges of kicking a hotel security guard in West Hollywood, California.

Late last year, he was arrested in Atlanta and charged with possessing less than an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana, speeding and having no driver's license or proof of insurance.

NEWSFILE: 22 JANUARY 2003