TMZ reports that Rihanna will testify at the preliminary hearing in Chris Brown’s felony assault case.
Donald Etra, Rihanna’s criminal defense lawyer, has been notified by the Los Angeles County District Attorney that his client will be subpoenaed to appear and testfy at the preliminary hearing scheduled for June 22.
Etra maintains that Rihanna (aka Robin Fenty) will cooperate and take the stand.
It should be noted that, in California, prosecutors do not need to actually have Rihanna testify at the preliminary hearing. Instead, they could present her statements at the hearing pursuant to Proposition 115 which allows a qualified police officer (basically a cop with at least 5 years experience on the force) to relate the out-of-court hearsay statements of victims and witnesses who need not testify.
While a Prop. 115 preliminary hearing is a viable option in this case, it is not surprising that prosecutors want to have Rihanna there in person to testify as there are a number of advantages to her doing so as follows:
- Allows them to gage what kind of witness Rihanna will be: By having her testify in person, prosecutors will be able to determine what kind of witness she is going to be for them. They will also be able to see how she holds up under cross-examination from Chris Brown’s criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos. Given the high profile/celebrity nature of this case, there has been a lot of speculation about whether Rihanna is willing to cooperate in this case, especially given the fact that she was not the one that called the police on the night in question. While Etra has maintained his client is willing to cooperate, this will be a good test to see just how cooperative her testimony will be.
- Allows them to preserve Rihanna’s testimony should she become unavailable: By having her testify in person, prosecutors will be able to preserve her testimony for use at trial should Rihanna become unavailable in the future for some reason.
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