Bobby Brown domestic violence allegations hang over his plans to build shelter
R&B singer received a proclamation from South Fulton mayor and other officials acknowledging his plans to build facility near Atlanta
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Your support makes all the difference.Bobby Brown plans to build a shelter for domestic violence victims despite allegations he was violent to his former wife, Whitney Houston.
The R&B singer received a proclamation from Bill Edwards - the South Fulton mayor - and other officials acknowledging his plans to build the facility near Atlanta.
Brown announced he was building the shelter, which will be called Bobbi Kristina Serenity House, on the three-year anniversary of the couple's daughter's death.
Bobbi Kristina Brown died at the age of 22 in 2015. Houston, her mother, died in 2012.
The non-profit service will offer a 24-hour crisis intervention line and an emergency transitional shelter.
Last week, Brown denied to news reporters that his marriage with Houston ever turned violent, in spite of a 2016 interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts in which Brown said he once hit her.
His 2016 memoir, Every Little Step, recounted an incident where he admits he hit Houston.
Brown, who was married to Houston from 1992 to 2007, told Roberts during the interview promoting the book that he struck the singer during a time while he was “trying to maintain sobriety.”
Asked about the allegations involving Houston again on Monday, Brown chose not to answer directly but instead described his own childhood experiences of domestic violence.
“I grew up in a domestic violence home,” he said. “I’ve seen it firsthand. It stopped after my mum was not going to have it anymore. They both would do it to each other. I’m happy that part of my life is over. I’m ready to move on. I’m becoming a better man, father and brother. This is all about being there for someone else, so they won’t have to go through it by themselves.”
Houston called police just outside Atlanta in December 2003 to report that Brown threatened to beat her and then hit her in the face - leaving her with a bruised cheek and a cut inside her lip.
However, Brown described the incident as a “little spat” saying the two were playfully “slap boxing” before Houston took one of his jabs a “little serious.”
A judge in May 2004 ruled there was enough evidence for Brown to stand trial on misdemeanour battery charges and set a deadline about two months later for Brown to turn himself over to authorities for fingerprinting. An Associated Press report from the time says Brown and Houston exchanged smiles during the hearing and left the courtroom arm-in-arm.
Brown turned himself in on July 11, 2004, a few hours before the court-imposed deadline, and was released after posting a $2,000 bond.
A notice from the Fulton County solicitor general’s office says the case was dismissed in December 2005. The reason prosecutors gave was: “Unable to contact the victim.”
Brown’s wife, Alicia Etheredge-Brown, said she is not happy the old allegations against her husband are receiving fresh attention.
She said: “It feels very hurtful."
She added: “Everyone doesn’t have the platform that Bobby is on, so it’s exposed.”
Mayor Edwards said he supports Brown despite the old allegations - saying it is appropriate for Brown to receive a proclamation acknowledging his plans for a shelter.
“You have to get to know the person for themselves. If you listen to the person and read between the lines, and you hear him today, that was genuine. That was not New Edition. That was a genuine love for his family. A genuine love for his daughter and for this movement to avoid domestic violence.”
Bobbi Kristina died after being found unresponsive in a bath, with medical records showing it to be the result of immersion in water and drug intoxication. She was found in the bath in January 2015 and was kept in a medically induced coma for several months before dying in a hospice in July of that year.
Her estate sued her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, for wrongful death, accusing him of assault and other offences. An attorney for Gordon called the charges baseless but after Gordon failed to defend himself in the civil case a judge ruled against him in 2016 and ordered him to pay $36m (£27m).
Houston also died in a bath several years earlier in February of 2012 and the official coroner's report listed heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors.
Additional reporting by Associated Press