Lorena Blas

USA TODAY Life

Singer Chris Brown is part of an ongoing investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department related to a report filed Saturday morning about an altercation outside a suite at the Palms Casino Resort.

Brown, who was in Las Vegas for a New Year's show at a different venue, is being accused of taking a woman's cellphone and hitting her after she tried to take a photograph with him.

According to a press release from the Las Vegas police, "A crime report has been taken for misdemeanor theft and misdemeanor battery listing Mr. Brown as a suspect." The woman "appeared to have minor injuries sustained as a result of a battery," the release says.

The police also say that the accuser, who is not identified in the release, "was escorted off property by hotel security due to the disturbance in the hallway." She "returned to the hotel where she reported the incident to hotel security. Detectives attempted to contact Mr. Brown in the hotel room, however they were not permitted entry, and it was later determined that he already left the location prior to officers’ arrival."

Late Saturday, Brown, 26, posted a message (with some profanity) on Instagram that says: "Keeping my circle small in 2016! I'm done taking the care of grown ... men. And I'm going to be hella rich after all the lawsuits I file from these crazy individuals who keep lying on my name. Happy NEW YEAR! Time for some of us to grow ... up!"

Nicole Perna, publicist for Brown, issued a statement Saturday night calling the woman's charges "unequivocally untrue," reports the Associated Press.

The woman "was escorted out of the private after party at the Palms Casino Resort for being disruptive and out of control," Perna told the AP. "Once she was in the hallway, while waiting for Chris Brown's security to bring out her phone, she had a total meltdown — throwing her purse to the ground and claiming that she 'could buy everyone in the hotel' — as witnessed by numerous people waiting to get into the party. The Palms Casino Resort security also saw her wild behavior via hotel security cameras and immediately came up to the hallway to escort her out of the hotel."

"Her claim that she had her phone in her possession inside the after-party and was able to take a photo causing an altercation with Chris Brown is a complete fabrication," Perna added.

The R&B singer, whose latest album named after his daughter Royalty was released in December, is no stranger to run-ins with the law.

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In 2009, he pleaded guilty to felony assault in a case involving his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. While serving five years' probation for that case, he was charged in Washington, D.C., with misdemeanor assault in 2013 for hitting a man who tried to jump into a photo that the singer was taking with two women outside a hotel.

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