Bobby Brown's Trial Postponed After He Wrecks Car

The singer was due in court today on battery charges in Florida

Misfortune continues to plague Bobby Brown. A weekend car crash has put the singer's battery trial on hold until November 7, according to the Florida state attorney. Doctors say the 27-year-old singer broke a bone in his ankle and bruised his ribs when he wrecked a Porsche leased to his wife, Whitney Houston, Saturday night.

Witnesses said that Brown raced through Hollywood, Florida, not far from Fort Lauderdale, shortly before plowing into a street sign, but police have not filed any charges in the incident. Although his injuries were serious enough to delay the trial scheduled to start today in Orlando, Brown left a North Miami hospital later Saturday night.

Brown; his publicist, Travis Boyce; and bodyguard Gary Smith are accused of assaulting a man in a Disney World Pleasure Island nightclub last year. Allegedly, the three men beat Neil Kelly after Kelly made a pass at a woman accompanying Brown in Mannequins Dance Palace. "All three kicked [Kelly], tearing his ear off," said Randy Means, deputy director of the state's attorney's office. Kelly's ear was surgically reattached.

Brown initially behaved when officers arrested him, but once inside a police car, "he made a pretty big fuss," said Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons. Brown is said to have "carved a four-letter word [on the seat], the Anglo-Saxon word for intercourse," according to Solomons. Police also say that Brown banged his head against the back seat and urinated in the patrol car.

Brown and his associates face more than three years in prison if convicted. Calls to Brown's attorney were not returned. Smith and Boyce were present in court but waived their right to a speedy trial.

Brown--who just recorded tracks for a reunion album with his old band, New Edition--has had a troubled past. USA Today reported that the R&B star checked into the Betty Ford Center last year to fight drug and alcohol addiction. In August 1995, four months after the Orlando incident, Brown was charged with battery after allegedly kicking a security guard summoned to shut down a party the singer was hosting in a West Hollywood, California, hotel room. In 1993, he was cited for his onstage antics, which Georgia police deemed too risque for an underage audience.

And he once was cited by police in Massachusetts for a different kind of driving violation in his wife's Porsche--going 30 mph in a 45 mph zone.