Chris Brown Assault Case Settled!

It has just been announced in the L.A. courtroom where Rihanna had been expected to testify against Chris Brown, that Chris' legal team has reached an agreement with prosecutors, thus avoiding a trial.

Chris pled guilty in open court on the count of assault with means of great bodily injury and has been sentenced to 5 years probation and 180 days of hard-labor community service. The charge of making threats was dropped.

Additionally, the judge in the case declared that, since Chris is technically a resident of the state of Virginia, he has the option of doing his 180 days of hard labor there, rather than California. Tasks that qualify for hard labor include: grafitti removal and trash collecting alongside highways. The singer must also attend a total of 50 classes about domestic violence in either state within the year.

While the court is allowing Chris to work out his sentence across the country in Virginia, the judge has declared that Chris must check in with her personally every three months, "so he must be prepared to travel, so that I can speak to him about his progress in his domestic violence classes."

If Chris violates his probation at any time, he could serve up to four years behind bars. He must also provide a DNA sample to be kept on file.

Brown has been ordered to stay at least 50 yards from Rihanna, except when they are both at the same industry event. In that case, he is allowed to be within 10 yards of her, so long as he makes no attempt to communicate with her.

Because of the existing restraining order, Rihanna was not in the courtroom during the announcement of the plea agreement. She had to wait until after Chris had been ushered out of the room before she could be brought before the judge to have the details of the sentence explained to her.

"Rihanna seemed very, very relieved," one courtroom witness tells OK!. "It looked she was delighted that she didn't have to testify and that the whole ordeal is over."

After leaving the courtroom, Rihanna's lawyer Donald Etra told OK!,"Rihanna is overwhelmed but very relieved and pleased with the outcome."

Etra, who says the plea agreement was a "mutual decision between both sides," also declared that his client "was fully prepared to testify if necessary, but ultimately it was not."