Justin Bieber’s Urine Test In Jail Videos To Be Released But Genitalia Redacted

A judge has decided jail videos of Justin Bieber urinating at a Miami Beach police station are public record and can be released, but in redacted form to protect the singer’s “expectation of privacy.”

The judge said the videos should be released but only after the Miami State Attorney’s Office provided a video technician who will be shown [by the judge] which portions of the video are to be redacted. The judge said the technician would be told to “shade or blacken out” images in two video clips where his genitalia is exposed during a urine test to preserve the “dignity” of the superstar.

Hot on the heels of the release of a slew of photographs taken of Bieber and his tattoos at the station, five previously sealed clips of the then 19-year-old will be unveiled over the next few days.

Of these, three clips reviewed by the judge showing the singer walking in and out of his jail cell will be released in coming days, while redaction on two jail videos that “depict or appear” to depict Bieber’s genitalia is completed, the Miami Herald reports.

As yet no date for when the redacting will be complete and videos released by the court has been set.

In a 1:00 pm hearing today with attorney Juan Perez for the state of Miami. Bieber’s legal team who argued for the videos to be withheld citing privacy rights, and attorneys for news media organizations who filed a public records request under Florida’s public records law — Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield announced the singer’s CCTV jail videos were a matter of public record.

CBS Miami reports, the judge was hearing a motion for injunctive relief/protective order to restrict the disclosure of remaining videos of Bieber while he was in the Miami Beach jail.

Previously Judge Altfield issued a temporary injunction blocking the release of the singer’s jail videos, following an emergency motion by Bieber’s lawyers the day after Miami police released one video of the singer getting a pat down by an officer.

Bieber was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Miami Beach shortly after 4 am with friend and R&B singer Khalil Sharieff on January 23.

The pair were stopped and arrested after what police described as an illegal street drag race on a residential Miami Beach street. At the time Bieber drove a rented yellow Lamborghini, Sharieff drove a red Ferrari.

At a later February 20 public records hearing, it was revealed that evidence in a criminal investigation becomes public record once it is handed over to the defense during discovery.

In the hearing today, Judge Altfield referenced Shakespeare’s hero Hamlet, rhetorically asking, “The question is to see, or not to see?”

Stating Bieber’s videos should be released while weighing the public’s right to know against the defendant’s right to privacy, the judge said public disclosure would be restricted.

Bieber’s privates and images of him urinating “clearly is potentially embarrassing and this defendant does have a right to privacy” even in police custody, the judge said.

Judge Alfield said that during the time he was an inmate, “Mr. Bieber’s right to privacy is paramount” adding, “He has not lost his right to privacy, and that is what is important here.”

He added that while the singer is a public figure he “still maintains an expectation of privacy and still has an expectation of dignity.”

Referring to a video released last summer of Bieber urinating into a mop bucket, the judge noted,

“We were all 19 at one time or another…we all do stupid things in our lives… but this defendant’s expectation of privacy should stay with him at all chapters of his life and even beyond when he leaves this earth.”

Judge Altfield deemed images of Bieber “either urinating” or images where the “defendant’s genitalia being exposed” as not relevant to the public’s right to disclosure.

He also distinguished between the public’s “right to know” and the “media’s right to publish,” finding that the former is the what is upheld under Florida’s famously liberal Public Records Act, Reuters reports.

These restrictions were also extended to Bieber’s co-arrestee, Khalil Sharieff.

At the hearing the prosecution and defense — led by Roy Black — briefly talked about the trial progress. Following revelations the Miami State Attorney’s office had offered Bieber’s team a chance to get the singer into a Back On Track pre-trial intervention program offered to all first time offenders, it appears that has not been taken up yet or formally offered.

Last week, over 10 hours of jailhouse videos were released by prosecutors, including clips of Bieber unsteadily walking a while line in his sobriety test inside the police station and doing pushups inside a holding cell.

Besides a small amount of alcohol, Bieber had the active ingredient (THC) of marijuana and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in his system at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.

Black waived the right to speedy trial at the hearing today, and another hearing on March 11 has been scheduled at which a new trial date will likely be set if a plea deal hasn’t been agreed between now and then.

All in all from Bieber’s perspective, today could have been worse. Altfield — who, as Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle tweeted — is an amateur actor, seemed to strive for fairness and humanity in his decision in which he was in fact compelled to authorize release of the videos.

The redacted jail videos are not yet available at press time, but photos of Bieber’s tattoos displayed at Miami Beach police station after his suspected DUI arrest are linked below in this report.

Images below credited to Miami Beach Police. To see all 10 images click here.

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