Posted by Adam

Thursday May 7, 2009

Chris Brown‘s lawyer formally filed a motion late Wednesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking access to internal LAPD records regarding the Run It singer’s alleged battery case.

Mark Geragos says he believes that the photo of a badly beaten Rihanna — which shows the Umbrella hitmaker with a swollen, bloody lip, two black eyes and marks on her forehead — was illegally leaked to the media by an LAPD Officer.

Geragos also claims that the photo being made public was harmful to his client — and could lead to the case being dismissed.

In the motion, obtained by Radar Online, Geragos says that Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Fenty, was very concerned about information being leaked to the media.

“Ms. Fenty requested that the police reports related to this incident be kept confidential, and a Request for Confidentiality of Information was completed,” read the motion.

“I’m informed and believe that on or about February 19, 2009, a photograph taken by the LAPD depicting physical injuries on Ms. Fenty’s person was illegally leaked to the media. Specifically, I am informed and believe that this highly prejudicial photograph was sold by an LAPD officer to the entertainment website, TMZ. The photograph was immediately viewed by hundreds of thousands of viewers and was displayed on every news channel for several weeks. In fact, the photograph still remains on the TMZ website. The purpose of the leak was necessarily for profit and to vilify Mr. Brown and poison the potential jury pool.

“If the instant motion reveals evidence of dishonest conduct on any of these officers’ part, I intend to use such evidence at the preliminary hearing to attack their credibility. The defense intends to prove and argue that the afore-mentioned officers are not credible and that the Court should not believe any or all of their testimony. If the Court does not believe these statements, I believe there is a reasonable likelihood that the case will be dismissed at the preliminary hearing.”

Geragos goes on to say, “In this case specifically, the leaking of a photograph (whether for profit or not) of a complaining witness violates a variety of criminal and regulatory prohibitions. In and of itself these actions would not only constitute demonstratable bias on the part of the involved officers but could potentially be the basis for a Motion to Dismiss Outrageous Governmental Misconduct.”

Tags: chris brown