Selena Gomez Served Subpoenas In Paparazzo Lawsuits Against Justin Bieber
Selena Gomez was served with a subpoena this past week and will be aware another is on the way. The subpoenas pull the 21-year-old into two ongoing lawsuits filed against on-off boyfriend Justin Bieber.
The Canadian and the Latina are thought to have reunited after being seen numerous times over a weekend in McAllen, Texas, just a day after Bieber’s appearance at a scalding four-and-half-hour deposition in Miami for one of these lawsuits.
While neither Selena and Justin have officially declared they are back together, many are starting to realize this pair never definitively split despite a widely publicized first breakup in November 2012.
Gomez was served with a subpoena Thursday while out in Los Angeles, TMZ reported.
The moment was captured in paparazzi photos, clearly illustrating how tied-in gossip media is to celebrity legal cases.
The “Come & Get It” star has been ordered to appear in a deposition connected to a lawsuit filed by paparazzo Jose Osmin Hernandez Duran, who is suing Bieber in a civil assault and battery case he launched last June.
E! News reveals: “Selena has been ordered to appear on April 23, 2014, to be deposed in Los Angeles.”
Duran’s complaint dates back to May 2012. The paparazzo alleges he was karate-kicked in the stomach by the “Baby” singer in the parking lot of The Commons — a shopping mall in Calabasas, California. Duran claims Gomez, who was out on a date with the then 18-year-old Bieber, witnessed the alleged attack.
Media reports previously alleged Selena tried to act as a peacemaker and even apologized to Duran for Justin’s alleged attack.
Although the Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to press charges over Duran’s complaint against Bieber at the time citing lack of evidence, in civil cases burdens of proof are lower.
The subpoena means Selena will have to submit to questioning from Duran’s lawyer on not only what she allegedly saw and heard in the May incident, but also wider probes such as Bieber’s feelings about paparazzi and beyond. She will also be under oath.
E! reports Selena will be questioned on “anything she observed before, during, and after the May 2012 incident with Duran and Bieber.”
Other subjects will reportedly include her “relationship with Justin, then and now,” if she ever saw “Justin taking controlled substances,” and “if she had seen any episodes of violence or anger involving Justin,” a source told the outlet.
The insider added any conversations the pair may have had about the Duran episode “and any other legal proceedings” will be on the table — including Bieber’s infamous deposition, during which he refused to answer questions about Gomez.
According to E!, Duran’s lawyers intend to videotape Gomez’s deposition and Bieber should be subpoenaed for a deposition in about two to three months.
Additionally, after Bieber broadcast Gomez as his Achilles Heel in a March 6 deposition for a lawsuit filed by paparazzo Jeffrey Binion — who alleges the singer ordered his bodyguards to attack him after he was seen taking photos last June — Selena is set to be deposed in the same suit.
Binion’s attorney, Mark DiCowden told Radar Online: “I will be serving Selena Gomez next week. She witnessed Justin Bieber attack a photographer back in 2012.”
Selena spent 14 days at Dawn at The Meadows rehab facility in Arizona back in January, and subsequently told thousands of kids at a We Day conference in California last week that she “lost sight” of who she was, before encouraging them to “trust” themselves.
Despite tabloid reports insisting that Gomez has a drinking and prescription medication habit which allegedly blossomed during her time with Bieber, she looked the picture of health and happiness at the event.
