Singer Chris Brown’s bodyguard on trial in DC

By: 11 years ago

This Jan. 8, 2014 file photo shows singer Chris Brown arriving at the District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington. Lawyers for Brown are headed back to court in Washington, but the Grammy winner won’t be there. Brown’s trial on a misdemeanor assault charge is currently set for April 17. On Monday, his lawyers and a government prosecutor will be in court for a motions hearing. Brown’s lawyers have asked a judge to dismiss the case, saying prosecutors misused the grand jury process to prepare for trial. They also want certain statements Brown made suppressed. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

WASHINGTON— A man accusing singer Chris Brown and his bodyguard of punching him in the face is trying to “get rich” as a result of a bloody nose, a lawyer for the bodyguard said Thursday.

Bernard Grimm made that statement in a courtroom in Washington during the start of a trial for his client, bodyguard Christopher Hollosy, who is charged with misdemeanor assault.

Both Hollosy and Brown were arrested in October after a man accused them of punching him outside a Washington hotel.

Hollosy told police he punched the man after he tried to get on Brown’s tour bus. But the alleged victim told police that Brown and later Hollosy punched him after he tried to get in a photo Brown was taking with two women. Photos of the man taken afterward and shown in court Thursday showed him with blood on his face and shirt, and court papers said his nose was fractured. The man, 20-year-old Parker Adams, later filed a $3 million lawsuit against Hollosy and Brown.

During the trial’s opening statements, Grimm focused on the lawsuit and said Adams is “simply trying to get rich” and “wants to get paid for this incident.”

Lawyers for Adams sued in February seeking $1.5 million each from Brown and Hollosy. When Adams took the stand Thursday, he said that the lawsuit wasn’t his idea and that he didn’t tell his lawyers how much money to ask for.

“I only know about the dollar amounts through the press,” said Adams, who is from Beltsville, Maryland.

Grimm held up poster-size blowups of the lawsuit’s pages in court Thursday and said the amount far exceeds the cost of Adams’ medical care, which Adams said in court amounted to a few thousand dollars.

Adams also testified that Brown got agitated after he took a “selfie” with Brown and the two women, one of whom is Adams’ girlfriend. Asked to evaluate the strength of each man’s punch, Adams said Brown’s punch was a six and Hollosy’s a 10.

Hollosy faces up to six months in jail if convicted, though any sentence is likely to be much less. His lawyer said in court Thursday that Hollosy has no criminal record.

Prosecutors finished presenting their case Thursday, and Hollosy’s trial is expected to finish Friday. Brown’s trial will follow and could begin as early as Friday. Both cases are being decided by a judge, not a jury.

Brown, who also faces a misdemeanor assault charge, has denied punching Adams. The case is significant for the Grammy winner because if convicted he could face additional penalties, including jail time, as a result of an earlier case from California. At the time he was arrested in Washington, Brown was on probation in Los Angeles for an attack on his then-girlfriend, the singer Rihanna, in 2009.