SINGER BOBBY BROWN ARRESTED

ATLANTA (AP) -- Singer Bobby Brown was arrested early Thursday in Atlanta's
trendy Buckhead district on drug and traffic charges.

An officer at the Atlanta city jail said Brown was charged with possession
of less than an ounce of marijuana, speeding and having no driver's license
or proof of insurance.

Brown, 33, was stopped around 2:30 a.m. in the Cadillac Escalade he was
driving. Several other people were in the sport utility vehicle, but were
not arrested, Atlanta police Sgt. R. Miniatis said.

Brown's wife, singer Whitney Houston, was not in the vehicle.

He posted $1,500 bond at the Atlanta jail shortly before 9 a.m., then was
taken to the nearby DeKalb County jail, where he was wanted for failing to
appear in court on driving charges from February 1997.

The DeKalb County charges included driving under the influence, speeding,
failing to maintain a lane and having no proof of insurance. He was
released on $10,000 bond.

A hearing on the charges was scheduled for Friday in DeKalb Superior Court.

Both Brown and Houston have had drug-or alcohol-related brushes with the
law in the past few years.

In May 2000, Brown spent 26 days in a Florida jail for violating his parole
on a 1996 drunken-driving conviction by not submitting to a drug test.

Houston, 39, was charged with having marijuana in her purse at a Hawaii
airport in 2000, but the misdemeanor charge was dismissed.

Brown was a member of the R&B group New Edition, but left in the late '80s
for a solo career, and recorded hits including "My Prerogative" and "Every
Little Step." He rejoined the group for "Home Again," a reunion album that
debuted at the top of U.S. pop charts in 1996.