NEW YORK - The rapper Foxy Brown emerged from jail on Tuesday to plead innocent to assaulting a New York City woman with her BlackBerry smartphone, fighting charges that could derail her music career with a seven-year sentence.
Brown, 29, whose real name is Inga Marchand, is accusedof bruising the eye and chipping the tooth of her longtime neighbour Arlene Raymond with the wireless communications device.
If convicted on the felony assault charges, Brown faces up to seven years in prison, prosecutors said.
Brown is in jail for a parole violation after her 2006 guilty plea on charges of assaulting two nail salon stylists over a $US20 ($NZ26.63) manicure. She is also accused of an assault in Florida.
Brown has maintained her innocence, saying she has been a victim of her celebrity.
"Obviously, you get jealous of someone's success," her lawyer John Sampson said outside the courtroom.
Brown was sentenced to one year in jail in September for violating her parole by failing to appear for court-ordered anger management classes. She was re-arrested after the July 30 BlackBerry incident.
State Supreme Court Judge John Ingram on Tuesday rebuked Brown for missing a court date on Friday.
"It had nothing to do with her hair or whatever," Sampson told Ingram, denying media reports that Brown refused to appear because she was not given enough time to prepare her hair and makeup.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Isdith said Brown refused to get on the bus with other inmates, but Brown said corrections officers told her she did not need to appear in court.
"It shall not repeat itself, whatever it is," the judge told Brown, who wore a simple brown blazer with her hands shackled in front.
Brown's 1999 album Chyna Doll opened at the top of the Billboard 200, the US pop chart encompassing all styles of music, making her the first female rap artist to achieve that feat.
