Bobby Brown Gets Jail, Rehab for DUI

With adoring fans watching from the gallery, a weepy Bobby Brown was convicted of drunken driving and sentenced to five days in the slammer Thursday.

Wife Whitney Houston, who stood by her man throughout the three-day trial, also turned on the waterworks as the judge handed down the sentence, which includes time in drug rehab.

It took a Fort Lauderdale jury just one hour to determine that the onetime king of New Jack Swing was far from sober when, in August 1996, he plowed Whitney's Porsche into a street sign.

According to prosecutors, Brown, who broke four ribs and an ankle in the wreck (one witness testified that the sports car was going so fast, its draft pulled his minivan into another lane), had a blood-alcohol content of 0.2 percent--more than double the Sunshine State's legal limit. The blood test also showed traces of drugs.

After serving his jail time, the 30-year-old, ex-New Edition star must enter a 30-day residential drug- and alcohol-treatment center. Additionally, Brown gets a year of probation, loses his license for a year, must fork over $500 in fines, serve 100 hours of community service and film anti-drug TV spots.

Brown's lawyers say they will appeal. They claim the blood tests were improperly admistered and cops unfairly targeted Brown because he is famous. In the meantime, the singer is out on $15,000 bond.

Of course, Brown has made more headlines in recent years for his run-ins with the law and tumultuous marriage than for catchy tunes like "My Prerogative" or a brief reunion with his New Edition pals.

This past year, Italian authorities investigated the possiblity that Brown struck Houston while the two were yachting in the Mediterranean, but eventually dropped the probe. In June 1997, Brown reportedly slapped his wife in a Honolulu mall. Houston refused to cooperate with the subsequent police investigation. Her publicist later said it was a case of mistaken identity.

Brown, who reportedly served a stint in the Betty Ford Center for drug and alcohol addictions, was arrested in 1995 after a nightclub brawl at Walt Disney World and accused of beating a patron after an argument over a woman. Charges were dropped when the patron agreed to a settlement. Four months after the Orlando incident, Brown was charged with battery after allegedly kicking a security guard summoned to shut down a party the singer was hosting in a West Hollywood, California, hotel room.

In 1993, he was cited for his onstage antics, which Georgia police deemed too risque for an underage audience.

And he once was cited by police in Massachusetts for a different kind of driving violation in his wife's Porsche--going 30 mph in a 45 mph zone.