Justin Bieber was asleep when roughly a dozen Los Angeles Sheriff’s investigators swooped into his Calabasas, Calif. home Tuesday, January 14 to execute a felony search warrant after a neighbor alleged the singer threw eggs at his house last week.
The rapper, Lil Za, 20, was arrested on suspicion of felony drug possession during the raid.
The 19-year-old star was in the land of nod along with others in the house and was reportedly disoriented when he woke up, according to a law enforcement source.
“Justin was fine. It is little weird to get woken up by a team of detectives,” the insider told E! News .
The source added; “Justin had to be calmed down [by law enforcement]. He wasn’t disrespectful, but he was wanting to know what was going on. He also seemed like he was trying to be tough in front of his friends.”
The Canadian was subsequently asked to sit while detectives explained a felony search was in progress. He and seven other people were detained by deputies during the procedure.
Bieber was served with a felony search warrant at his home by police investigators looking for “video surveillance or other relevant evidence” that might link the pop star to the egging, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The next-door neighbor’s household called police Thursday, (Jan. 9) claiming the pop singer hurled eggs at their front door. A partially dark video of the incident filmed by the neighbor and his daughter from their balcony and later posted by TMZ allegedly showed the neighbor trading expletives with the voice of an unseen male — allegedly Bieber.
“He has not been arrested nor has [he] been exonerated,” Sheriff’s Lt. David Thompson said of Bieber at a Tuesday press conference in nearby Malibu.
Thompson went on to explain, “We were looking at things that would put him or anything else at the scene,” adding the star’s attorneys were not present during the search, and he was not questioned beyond routine questions.
Authorities said the $20,000 damages estimate has upped the initial misdemeanor vandalism and assault classification of the incident to a felony as anything above $400 qualified it as such.
“The felony comes from the dollar amount of the damage,” Thompson told press, insisting Bieber’s celebrity had nothing to do with the search.
He added, “This residence sustained a great amount of damage that easily achieved the amount. I get that the eggs don’t seem that significant but it does rise to the level of a felony.”
“There is a victim in this case who has extensive damage done to their home. And that’s a serious incident.”
Meanwhile, Lil Za [real name, Xavier Smith] was released late Tuesday night from the lockup at Lost Hills/Malibu Station after officers reportedly found drugs — now believed to be Molly, a form of ecstasy, and not cocaine — “in plain view” in a location used only by one person [Za] at Bieber’s Calabasas home . He had been held on $20,000 bond, Reuters reports.
Speaking to BBC’s Newsbeat , Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the drug could still be cocaine, but tests would confirm.
“The alleged narcotics were in such a location that they were directly related to one person and not related to the house at large.”
Similarly, at the Malibu conference Thompson said Bieber “was not connected to the [drugs] other than the gentleman was staying at his residence.”
Lil Za was also charged with felony vandalism while in lockup, “He damaged a phone on the wall,” Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Williams of the Lost Hills station told the Los Angeles Times .
Previous investigations into Bieber’s behavior after complaints by neighbors involving alleged assault, reckless driving, and battery have not led to charges by prosecutors.
However, Thompson says the warrant wasn’t served to send a message to Justin, but noted that could be a by-product.
“We didn’t do this search warrant to send a message, that’s not what we do, But we hope maybe understanding the gravity of this will change some of the behavior,” he said, AP reports .
E! News reports a source said surveillance footage was taken from Bieber’s home during the raid.