CANTON, Massachusetts – Bobby Brown paid $19,000 in late child support and court fees and was freed after spending three nights in the Norfolk County jail.
Brown, who was released Wednesday night, was scheduled to appear Thursday in Norfolk Probate and Family Court, a familiar place for the 38-year-old singer, who has a long history of failing to pay support on time.
A judge had ordered Brown held in the county jail in Dedham until he made the payments after he was arrested while watching his daughter's cheerleading competition at Attleboro High School.
Phaedra Parks, an attorney in Atlanta where Brown lives, said the singer has been struggling to meet monthly payments to Kim Ward, of Stoughton, the mother of two of his teenage children. Brown and Whitney Houston, who have a daughter, are divorcing after 14 years of marriage.
"Although this agreement was put in place when he was Bobby Brown the star, this agreement is being enforced when he is not always able to find work," Parks told The Associated Press. "He hasn't made an album in quite some years."
Brown, a Boston native best known for a solo hit "Don't Be Cruel," has a history of legal troubles. In June 2004, he was sentenced to 90 days in prison for missing three months of payments. That sentence was immediately suspended after Brown paid about $15,000.
Last March, Brown was nabbed for minor motor vehicle violations dating back 14 years when he arrived to watch his daughter at a cheering competition at Bartlett High School. Brown was cooperative and allowed to drive to the police station after the competition, police said.
In October, Brown paid $11,000 in delinquent child support after being threatened with arrest if he stepped back into Massachusetts. He owed more than two months' worth of payments to Ward.
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