Brown Facing Jail with Plea Bargain?

Chris Brown is facing a judge today to answer to felony charges of assault and making criminal threats -- and the R&B star is rumored to be working on a plea deal that could have him facing jail time.

Brown will return to a Los Angeles courtroom today where he is expected to cop a plea to the charges against him. The "Forever" singer stands accused of beating one-time girlfriend Rihanna -- and TMZ's Harvey Levin tells "Extra" that Breezy's lawyers are still working at making a deal.

"They are seriously trying to plea bargain this case," says Harvey. "My hunch here is that he will probably accept a little bit of jail time to make this go away -- because if he doesn't, and it goes to trial, he could be facing a lot worse."

When asked if taking a plea deal would mean admitting guilt, Levin explained, "What they could do is, he could plead no contest to some kind of battery. 'No contest' is not the same as saying, 'I did it' -- 'no contest' just means I'm not going to fight."

Meanwhile Rihanna, the alleged victim, has flown home to Barbados to help celebrate her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. "We are told that she is there because she wants to stay as far away from this court hearing as possible," says Levin. "She has made it really clear to Chris Brown that she wants this thing to go away as quickly as possible."