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Rihanna appears in court to support one-time abuser Chris Brown

TRY PUNCHING THE GAS: Rihanna and Brown leave a recording studio in LA early yesterday morning, hours before she showed up in court to support her on-again beau. (
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Pop princess Rihanna proved yesterday that she just can’t stop crushing on the man who crushed her face — showing up in court yesterday to support Chris Brown at a hearing linked to his infamous attack on her.

The cruel crooner has been accused of faking his way through the community-service slap on the wrist he got after he pleaded guilty to roughing up Rihanna in 2009.

Though prosecutors seem bent on finally making Brown pay for his domestic violence, his pretty pop-star punching bag couldn’t care less if he sees justice for smacking her around.

After blowing a kiss to Brown on their way into the Los Angeles County Courthouse, she expressed through Brown’s lawyer how she wants prosecutors to stop persecuting her on-again boyfriend.

“She thinks it’s utterly ridiculous what they’re doing to him,” Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, said yesterday, adding that Rihanna is “completely supportive.”

In court, Rihanna sat next to Brown’s mom, Joyce Hawkins, in the gallery during yesterday’s hearing.

Judge James Brandlin didn’t immediately rule on prosecution claims about Brown’s alleged phony work. He ordered all sides back to court on April 5.

Brown, 23, and Rihanna, 24, sauntered out of the courthouse together, surrounded by their entourages.

The rage-filled singer, who became infamous for beating up Rihanna after a pre-Grammys party, was sentenced to 180 days — or 1,440 hours — of community service, after pleading guilty to felony assault.

He was allowed to do about 900 of those hours in Richmond in his native Virginia. But this week, prosecutors said reports from Virginia officials detailing Brown’s labor were vague.

LA officials also say there is evidence that Brown was busy globe-hopping when he claimed to have been cleaning up trash.

The DA wants all the hours Brown claims from Virginia thrown out and for him to finish his work in Los Angeles.

Judge Brandlin ordered Brown to meet with LA County probation officers this week and detail his Virginia labor.

Geragos said yesterday that he has Virginia police officers and firefighters who will support his client’s claims to have worked all his hours.

“I’ve got pictures, I’ve got witnesses,” he said. “What they [prosecutors] need to do is account to the people of the county of Los Angeles why they’re squandering money like this.”

Despite such support, Brown and Geragos will presumably have to explain how he could have worked in the commonwealth while living it up in Cancun and Dubai on the very same days, according to prosecutors.

The allegations by LA officials include:

* On Oct. 23, 2010, the “Run It” crooner claimed to have done eight hours of labor in Richmond, the same day that witnesses reported seeing him in Washington, DC, for a charity fund-raiser.

* On Dec. 12, 2011, he claimed to have cleaned up trash all day — but Homeland Security records showed that Brown cleared customs at Dulles International Airport, 120 miles away from Richmond, at 6:44 a.m. that morning, after landing from Dubai.

* On March 15, 2012, he claimed to have worked from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but records show he jetted to Cancun that day.

Brown also claimed to have spent time cleaning at the Tappahannock Children’s Center outside of Richmond.

Brown’s mom used to work at the center and told Virginia officials she’d let her son inside to do work after hours.

A commercial cleaning company that has a contract for the facility told Los Angeles prosecutors that they were never told to skip a night because Brown was handling the cleaning for them.

However one cleaner said that the children’s center’s administrator, Ida Minter, called and “attempted to tell him how to answer questions the investigators may have about the defendant’s work at the center,” said Deputy DA Mary Murray.

Minter insisted to The Post yesterday that Brown did real work for her.

“Yes, he was here. That’s a bunch of bull,” she said of the LA prosecutors’ accusations.