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Rihanna and Chris Brown aren't even officially back together (although you'd be excused from not knowing that based on the non-stop gossip drip about the couple), but Rihanna's already reportedly sticking by Brown through his latest legal trouble.

Brown was publicly accused last week of stealing a fan's iPhone outside of a South Beach nightclub after she tried to take a picture of the controversial singer, and according to Radar Online, Rihanna believes (not-so-?)secret boyfriend Chris Brown when he says he didn't do it.

Chris told Rihanna that he absolutely 1000% didn't steal that phone, and Rihanna has told him she believes him, Radar's source said. Rihanna has also told Chris that she will stand by him during the investigation, and whatever the future holds.

Of course stealing a cell phone is bad, but might there be an ulterior motive behind Chris Brown's denial?

Miami's Gossip Extra sure seems to think so. Rapper Tyga, who was with Chris Brown when the alleged robbery by sudden snatching went down, supposedly told police that Brown took fan Christal Spann's iPhone because she had captured pictures of the singer taking two groupies home with him, trying to cheat on Rihanna before their relationship has even been publicly announced, and he didn't want them to leak out.

It should come as no surprise that Rihanna is sticking by Brown--after all, this comes just days after she publicly attacked a fan on Twitter, calling her ugly after she questioned Rihanna's return (at least musically) to her abuser.

All the public opprobrium has not escaped Rihanna, and apparently even her own friends (not to mention mentor Jay-Z) are trying to convince her not to get back together with the man who once left her with bruises after repeatedly punching her in the face. But Rihanna is having none of it, says Radar Online's source: she's made it very clear to everyone around her that she doesn't want to hear anything negative about Chris. She isn't interested in listening to the fears her friends have about the the two young singers spending time together.

The latest cell phone snatching incident has authorities throughout the country taking a close look at Brown's actions, and apparently it won't even take a conviction to trigger a reevaluation of Chris Brown's probation: Chris wouldn't need to be convicted in the Miami case to cause problems with his probation, just charged.

If that happens, will Rihanna stand by her word? Word on the street is that she would have gotten back together with Brown even sooner after her beating had it not been for her fans and a disapproving public, so it sounds like she's pretty steadfast in her love of her former abuser.

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