Bobby Brown arrested for domestic battery

GEORGIA (AP) - Bobby Brown was arrested today and charged with domestic battery, three days after a fight with his wife, Whitney Houston, left her injured.

Fulton County police spokesman Kurtis Young said Brown, 34, received a copy of the charge and was arrested after turning himself in Wednesday.

Brown is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Jan. 7.

On Sunday, Fulton police responded to an emergency 911 call by Whitney to the couple's home at Country Club of the South near Alpharetta.

Whitney, 40, said Brown threatened to "kick her ass" then struck her on the left side of her face with an open right hand.

The responding police officer saw a large bruise on Houston's left cheek and a one-inch cut inside her upper lip. But by the time the officer reached the house, Brown was not there.

Whitney allegedly told police Brown went to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and was en route to California, however Brown had never left Georgia.

The couple married in 1992 and have been plagued with rumors of domestic abuse and drug use ever since.

In 2000, Brown served 26 days in a Florida jail from a drunk-driving incident in that state. That same year, Whitney was busted for pot at Hawaii's Keahole-Kona International Airport but managed to board a plane and fly away before police could arrest her. She later pleaded no contest and the case was dismissed.

More recently, Brown received a two-year probation and a seven-day bid in DeKalb County Jail, after pleading guilty in January to drunk- driving charges that dated back to 1996. That charge came about as a result of being busted in Atlanta last November for having a baggie of dank, speeding and having no driver's license and proof of insurance.

Then in August, Brown was busted at an Alpharetta seafood restaurant in August for a probation violation for which he was briefly jailed and ordered to complete a stint in rehab.