Singer Chris Brown is in trouble with the law again, the Daily Mail reports — this time over a Christmas gift he bought for his daughter last year.
According to the news outlet, Brown is facing criminal charges for purchasing a capuchin monkey for his daughter Royalty, which he gifted to her last Christmas.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles City Attorney specified that the “Freaky Friday” singer was slapped with two counts of possession of a restricted primate without a permit, charges that could land him in jail for six months after his arraignment next year on February 6.
The charges come after authorities were notified of the animal after the singer posted a video to his Instagram account in December of last year. The video in question showed his three-year-old daughter cuddling her new exotic pet. The video — which has now been viewed over 4 million times — has over 10,000 comments, with a number of fans expressing their concern for the safety of both his daughter and the animal.
“It’s cute but Capuchin monkeys are very dangerous, they will snap off at any moment and can bit [sic] fingers off,” one user commented on the Instagram post.
“This is so sad… wild animals are no [sic] pets,” wrote another.
Some fans took their concern even further, as Chris’s post to his account on the social media platform prompted a half-dozen calls to the wildlife department when it went live, the Daily Mail reported.
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Authorities from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife seized the monkey after providing a search warrant to a cooperative Chris Brown. They determined that the singer didn’t have the proper permit required to house the exotic monkey.
Brown apparently was not home at the time, but instructed his employees to hand over Fiji, who is now lives in an undisclosed facility.
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This is not the first time that Brown has found himself in trouble with the law. In 2009, he pled guilty to the 2009 felony assault of his then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna. He completed his probation for the case in 2015.
He found himself in trouble again in 2013, when he was charged with misdemeanor assault after being accused of striking a man outside of a hotel in Washington, D.C. He spent three months in custody after being dismissed from court-ordered rehab for violating facility rules.
Just this year in July, Brown was charged with felony battery for an incident which allegedly took place in April of 2017. Brown stands accused of striking a man hired to photograph an event at a night club in Tampa, Florida.
