Justin Bieber Florida DUI Trial Delayed Until July
Justin Bieber DUI Trial delayed until July 7 after pop star’s lawyers request.
Justin Bieber’s DUI trial where he will face charges of driving under the influence, resisting arrest without violence and driving with an expired license, has been delayed until July by a South Florida judge.
At the scheduled Wednesday hearing, Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield granted a motion for a postponement filed Monday by Bieber’s lawyers.
Criminal defense attorney Roy Black said his team needed more time to examine evidence and make decisions about how to proceed, the Associated Press reports.
Bieber’s DUI trial was scheduled to begin on May 5. It will now start on July 7.
Prosecutors offered no objection to the delay, and E! News reported the Miami-Dade State Attorney previously told the outlet:
“I have since learned that the defense has indicated that they need more time to prepare and investigate their case. The State has no objections to the desire for a continuance.”
Bieber was arrested on January 23 on suspicion on DUI while out with R&B singer and co-arrestee, Khalil Amir Sharieff, his father Jeremy and others.
At the time, Justin was driving a rented, yellow Lamborghini and police said he and Sharieff were engaged in an illegal street drag race.
However, the two then 19-year-olds were not charged with drag racing.
(Photo: Instagram.)
Bieber, who is currently in Japan on vacation with his mother Pattie Mallette, was not at today’s hearing.
Following tests at the police station he was taken to after his arrest, Bieber’s blood alcohol content in two completed breath tests revealed 0.11 and 0.14 level, both of which are below Florida’s 0.02 limit for drivers under 21.
A urine test subsequently revealed Justin tested positive for the T.H.C. – which is the active ingredient of marijuana and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug — in his system at the time of his arrest.
Over in Japan Bieber found time to tweet reflections on his turbulent year and a bit and his desire to move past them.
On Sunday, he tweeted fans, writing:
“This is my time off but my mind is alway running. Learned a lot this past year thru trial & error but that is life. Excited for what’s next.”
However, he may have tweeted too soon.
The 20-year-old’s unwitting visit to Tokyo’s Yusukini War shrine this week which, according to TIME, honours:
“Japan’s war dead, including former military leaders from the country’s imperial army who committed mass atrocities across Asia and the Pacific during World War II,” has sparked Chinese and South Korean protest.
After no doubt noting the over 600,000 “Likes” at his Instagram page, thousand of angry comments and likely calls from his management, Bieber deleted two Instagram photos of himself taken at the war shrine and later apologized.
Justin’s apology, posted today at his Twitter and Instagram acccounts reads:
“While in Japan I asked my driver to pull over for which I saw a beautiful shrine. I was mislead to think the Shrines were only a place of prayer.
To anyone I have offended I am extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan.”
(Photo: Bieber Instagram.)
