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Artist News Legal
Drag-racing Bieber fined and sent to anger management class
By Aly Barchi | Published on Thursday 14 August 2014
Young Justin Bieber’s drag-racing fate has been sealed, legally speaking, as Canada’s baddest showbiz child (or more his lawyers) reached a plea deal over charges stemming from that street racing incident earlier this year.
As previously reported, Biebs was arrested near Miami Beach back in January and later charged with – deep breath – driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs, resisting arrest and driving with an expired licence.
But, according to Reuters, the pop boy has agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of careless driving and making a civil infraction, and to the misdemeanour of resisting an officer without violence, in return for prosecutors dropping the more serious DUI charge. As part of the deal JB will attend an intensive anger management class, watch online videos in which tragic DUI cases are profiled, and also will donate $50,000 to a children’s charity.
There were also stern words from the judge. Highlighting the glaring, ‘Spiderman’-style fact that with Bieber’s great pop profile comes great responsibility, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Altfield said that: “While this is a case that involved driving under the influence, [Bieber] needs to be cognisant of the fact that there are many young persons who are living under the influence, and he is the influence”.
He added: “Here is someone who is young, his whole life is ahead of him. He just hopefully will get the message, he will grow up, he will use all of his talents positively for younger persons”.
Speaking for Bieber’s legal team, a sympathetic rep said: “We’ll turn this into a positive experience… and we’ll make sure this becomes a positive experience for everyone”.
