Brown team probes Rihanna 'leak'

Rihanna was in New York on Thursday at a charity event

The lawyer for R&B star Chris Brown has asked to see paperwork from a police investigation into how a photo of his former girlfriend Rihanna was leaked.

A photo of the bruised singer surfaced online following Mr Brown's arrest in February for allegedly attacking her.

Mark Geragos hopes to discredit police witnesses at a June preliminary hearing according to a motion filed this week.

Mr Brown, 20, remains free on bail following his arrest on assault and criminal threat charges.

If convicted, he could potentially face more than four years in prison.

Injuries

Mr Brown was arrested after rowing with Rihanna in a parked car in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles on 7 February.

The alleged incident left the Barbados-born star with facial injuries that forced her to cancel a scheduled performance at the Grammys later that day.

Geragos (left) is one of America's most high-profile attorneys

In his motion, Mr Geragos alleges that a Los Angeles Police Department officer sold the photo of Rihanna to celebrity gossip website TMZ.

"The purpose of the leak was necessarily for profit and to vilify Mr Brown and poison the potential jury pool," he wrote.

Mr Geragos believes that if police files contain evidence of misconduct they may form a basis for the case against his client to be dismissed.

The motions are scheduled to be heard on 28 May.

Mark Geragos is one of the highest profile lawyers in the US whose clients have included Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder and Michael Jackson.

Last year, he was awarded $18m (£12m) damages from an air charter firm that secretly filmed him and Jackson in 2003.