One Year Ago Today

Chris Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault on a rock star.

It was all good back in 2007 when Chris Brown and Rihanna began openly-secretly dating. Though frequently photographed together in airports and sunny locales, whenever asked both denied a relationship.

Fast forward to the night before The Grammys 2009. By this time it's rumored Chris and Rihanna had grown apart, but their publicists agreed showing up at the Grammy pre-party together would be a good idea.

On the way home from the party Chris Brown and Rihanna got into a fist fight in his rented Lamborghini after she found text messages from another female on his cell phone. Rihanna claims after questioning him about it Chris, choked, punched, scratched and bit her and left her by the side of the road in the Hollywood Hills.  Neighbors, who didn't realized who was involved, called the police after hearing Rihanna's cries for help.

Believe it or not, the incident might have gone unnoticed had Rihanna not been scheduled to perform at The Grammy's the following night. Stranger things have happened. Look at that enduring hip hop mogul who famously broke his baby mama's nose on a yacht on the French Riveria and then flew in a plastic surgeon to take care of it. Nobody ever heard about that.

 N-Ne-Way

After Rihanna abruptly canceled her Grammy appearance, message boards lit up with rumors of her beating, which were later confirmed. 

Weeks went by. Rihanna went into seclusion and refused to cooperate with the police investigation and later turned up with Chris Brown at  enduring hip hop mogul Diddy's Star Island mansion.

Their reconciliation was short lived. In an interview with Diane Sawyer Rihanna would later say, though she went back to him initially, she just couldn't get over what Chris Brown had done to her and ended things with him for good.

For his part, Chris Brown uploaded several youtube apologies and even wrote a song for Rihanna, which he also uploaded to Youtube. When it became clear Rihanna would not be taking him back, members of Chris' inner circle began making Youtube videos of their own, proclaiming Chris' innocence arguing nobody knew the real story of what happened that night.

One popular opinion is that Rihanna provoked the attack by hitting or spitting or hitting, spitting and kicking Chris first.

It was also around this time intimate pictures of Rihanna leaked onto the Internet.

When it came time to go to court, instead of taking the stand and possibly redeeming himself, Chris Brown opted to pled guilty to felonious assault.

Looking back, if Chris had a card to play against Rihanna he should have played it.

Chris received

* Supervised probation for 5 years.
* 180 days of community labor in his hometown of Virginia.
* Must report back to court every three months for his supervised probation.
* Must enroll in a domestic violence counseling program, which will most likely be 52 sessions. One session per week.
* A a stay away order, meaning he must stay at least 50 yards away from Rihanna, and is not allowed to contact her.

Not to mention the indelible mark left on his career.

Maybe by next year this will have all blown over.