Brown, 43, was arrested on Monday and failed a sobriety test after being pulled over by traffic police for talking on a cellphone. He will make a first appearance in court on the charges on April 16.

Brown, a singer with 1980s boy band New Edition, was married to Houston for almost 15 years but their relationship was marked by what Houston later described as heavy cocaine use and bizarre behavior.

Brown has a string of arrests over the years for battery, drunk driving, drug possession and parole violations.

His latest arrest came six weeks after Houston was discovered dead in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub from what authorities said was accidental drowning, cocaine use and heart disease.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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