Most of what I know about the US Marshall service I learned from Justified. (Which I haven’t been watching this season, sorry Bedhead!) So I’m somewhat confused at why Marshalls would have to haul Chris Brown into custody, and am picturing Raylan Givens deftly cuffing Breezy after a clumsy escape attempt. (Olyphant is so hot on that show.)

Where was I? Oh, that’s not the way it went down though. As you may remember, Chris Brown has been in jail in LA for about three weeks, ever since he got kicked out of his second rehab and violated probation. When the Marshalls came to haul him away, he was already behind bars in orange. It’s their job to move prisoners. Brown is being taken to Washington, DC to face felony assault charges, which are much more serious because they were a violation of his probation following his attack on Rihanna.

Apparently Brown’s trip from LA to DC will be an exercise in maddening futility. It’s going to take up to two weeks and will involve multiple jail stops along the way, which will not be a straight line. (I recently read John Grisham’s The Racketeer, and he described this process of transporting criminals in detail, calling it a “nightmare.” You can see that section here, and if you like Grisham I would recommend that book.) CNN has more on this, and I sense a little snark behind their usual just-the-facts writing.

Chris Brown’s trip to face trial in Washington will be on the Justice Department’s “Con Air” prisoner airline, not on a private jet or a first class commercial ticket as the singer hoped.

Brown, 24, was transferred into the custody of federal marshals after an extradition hearing in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, according to U.S. Marshals Service spokewoman Laura Vega.

Brown will be booked on a series of government planes that hopscotch across the country taking inmates from prison to prison, Vega said. The trip, with several layovers in jails along the way, could take up to two weeks, she said.

Unlike Brown’s usual mode of touring the country in luxury, he will be wearing handcuffs and possibly chains on his legs.

Brown has been confined to the Los Angeles County jail since he was booted from a court-ordered rehab program three weeks ago.

The U.S. Attorney in Washington petitioned for Brown to be extradited from Los Angeles to D.C. for his April 17 trial.

Brown and his bodyguard are accused of assaulting a man on a D.C. sidewalk last October.

The singer is on probation for the 2009 felony assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown lawyer Mark Geragos said Brown would attend a pretrial hearing in Washington on April 7.

Geragos tried to persuade Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin to release Brown from jail so he could fly on his own to Washington. Prosecutors opposed that request and suggested the decision should be made by a federal judge.

Brown’s legal troubles began five years ago when he beat Rihanna as the two were in a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street. He pleaded guilty to felony assault in June 2009, which resulted in a sentence of five years of probation and 1,400 hours of community labor.

The judge has revoked Brown’s probation twice in the last year, most recently because of his arrest on a sidewalk near the White House after allegedly punching a man.

Brown voluntarily entered a rehab program a day after being released from a Washington jail in October, but he was kicked out a few days later for “throwing a rock through his mother’s car window” after a family session at the center, a probation report said. Brown was upset because his mother said she wanted him to stay in treatment, the report said.

[From CNN]

I don’t get how the US Marshalls service can be all “Yeah, it can take 2 weeks,” while Brown has a pretrial hearing set for April 7, just three days away. I guess that may have to be postponed or held without Brown, and there are surely other prisoners who are missing hearings too. Brown’s trial is relatively soon, on April 17, and I’m interested to see how that turns out. He faces up to 4 years for violating probation.

Meanwhile Brown’s lawyer is trying to get the charges dismissed. I don’t think that’s going to happen. He’s had way too many chances. Now that Brown has been in jail a whole three weeks he surely wishes he was back in that cushy rehab. No take backs, Breezy.

photo credit: Getty and WENN.com