Judge Praises Chris Brown's Progress at Probation Hearing

Chris Brown was in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday to provide a progress report on how his probation program is progressing; last year he was sentenced to 1,400 hours of "labor-oriented service" after pleading guilty to assault charges stemming from his violent pre-Grammy incident with Rihanna in February 2009. The judge on the case was impressed by Brown's efforts, telling the singer "It looks like you're doing really, really well" after the Richmond, Virginia police chief who is overseeing Brown's sentence reported the singer had so far completed 32 days of hard labor and had attended 17 of his 52 scheduled domestic violence counseling sessions, CNN reports.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Brown is completing five years probation, 180 days of community labor and a 52-week counseling program. The judge requested that Brown's labor work be "actual physical labor" involving tasks like washing cars, picking up garbage and cleaning up graffiti, which is ironic considering his latest album was called Graffiti and showed Brown on the cover emptying a spray can. A court-imposed restraining order also mandates Brown remains 50 yards away from Rihanna except at entertainment events both stars attend, where the distance is reduced to 10 yards. The restraining order, like Brown's probation, is in place until 2014.

Brown's next progress report will come on May 11th, at which point the judge said she anticipates Brown's community service sentence to be well over halfway through completion. As for how Brown was doing in his domestic violence counseling sessions, the agency running the program noted that Brown is "participating and doing a very good job."

Related Stories:
• Chris Brown Sentenced to Labor, Probation for Rihanna Assault
• Chris Brown Avoids Jail Time With Rihanna Assault Plea Deal
• Chris Brown Talks Rihanna on "Larry King": "It's One of the Worst Moments of My Life"

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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