The onetime King of New Jack Swing and his R&B diva wife left the Fulton County Magistrate Court together after their attorneys met with police and received a copy of the charge.

Local reports said the couple hoped to work the matter out "privately."

Private or not, Brown is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing January 7.

If convicted, Brown could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000.

He's also being investigated for possible probation violation on a prior drunken driving conviction. Brown was ordered to be on his best behavior until February 17, 2005. A screw up (like hitting your wife in the face) could result in jail time.

Cops responded to a domestic dispute call from the Houston-Brown household in suburban Atlanta on Sunday night where they found Houston with a cut upper lip and bruised cheek. She claimed the injuries were the result of a fight with Brown.

However, the ex-New Edition member had already split by the time police arrived and was reportedly on his way to California. A family spokesperson later denied Brown had ever left the peach state.

While Brown's whereabouts during the ensuing three days were unclear, the embattled entertainer did release a statement apologizing to Whitney and asking for her forgiveness.

Those words were undoubtedly more welcome than the alleged threat he made to his wife Sunday when he told Houston he would "beat her ass."

This is just the latest in a string of legal woes for Brown, who served 26 days in a Florida jail in 2000 from a drunken-driving incident in that state and more recently was a guest of Georgia's DeKalb County correctional facility in August, a slammer stint that stemmed from a probation violation linked to a 1996 drunken driving conviction.

Do you know any Whitney-related articles that's not already listed on these pages?  Please share your info with other fans, submit your article details to the NewsDesk.