Contempt Of Court...
[Associated
Press Report]
Bobby Brown gets suspended sentence
after missing support payments
CANTON, Mass. -- Singer Bobby Brown was given a suspended
prison sentence Tuesday after missing three straight child support payments
in defiance of a court order.
Brown was sentenced to 90 days in jail for contempt of court by Norfolk
County Family Court Judge Paula Carey, but the sentence was immediately
suspended because Brown made the back payments Monday, according to Patrick
McDermott, the court's Register of Probate.
Tuesday's hearing was scheduled to see if Brown had complied with a court
order to make monthly payments of roughly $5,000. Brown was jailed in March
for one day after failing to pay $63,500 he owed Kim Ward of Stoughton, the
mother of two of his children. He was released after paying the debt.
Carey's sentence can be imposed if Brown fails to make his scheduled
payments.
"I'm still trying, you know," Brown said after the hearing. "Working, you
know, and that's the most I can do. I can work harder, you know, to try to
keep up with the payments."
In March, Carey also ordered Brown to get a life insurance policy and start
an education fund to benefit the children, now 12 and 14.
On Tuesday, Brown said he'd been denied life insurance. In an out-of-court
mediation, Brown told Ward he intended to start the education fund, and they
agreed he could begin payments later in the year, McDermott said.
Brown is also facing trouble in another court.
Last month, he was ordered to stand trial in Atlanta on charges that he hit
superstar wife, singer Whitney Houston. He's charged with misdemeanor
battery for allegedly striking Houston in the face at their home near
Alpharetta in December, leaving her with a bruised cheek and a cut inside
her lip.
Last modified: June 15. 2004 3:02PM
NEWSFILE:
15 JUNE 2004
|
