Chris Brown reaches plea deal - did he deserve jail?

Chris Brown turned himself in to police and was arrested in February 2009 admitting to domestic violence against his girlfriend, singer Rihanna.

Now the case has come to court in Los Angeles.

The upshot?

He copped a plea and consequently won't do jail time.

Instead he gets five years supervised probation and he'll spend six months doing community service such as cleaning up roads, picking up garbage, pulling weeds and washing fire trucks.

He's also been ordered to stay 50 yards clear of Rihanna and must enroll in a domestic violence counseling program.

The judge said if Brown and Rihanna are at the same public events, the 50-yard stay away turns into 10 yards. The stay away order lasts 5 years.

Rihanna was actually in the courthouse but didn't go into the courtroom until Brown had left. The judge then explained to her what the deal was and how the protective order would work.

So this now makes Chris Brown a convicted felon which means he loses the right to own a gun, sit on a jury, has travel limitations and is subject to search and seizure without a search warrant.

Public reaction was generally that they thought Brown would try to fight the case and try to make himself look presentable.

Others said, considering what he did to her face, he should have served some jail time.

Many people would have liked to see Rihanna speak out on the issue of domestic violence.

The biggest loser in all this has been Chris Brown.

Following his arrest, several of his commercial ads were suspended, his music was withdrawn from many radio stations, and he withdrew from the 2009 Grammy Awards, where he was replaced by Justin Timberlake and Al Green.