Justin Bieber. Catch me if you can?
The 20-year-old singer has only just returned to the U.S. from a vacation in Europe. But, he has already had to take evasive measures to avoid a process server who staked out his Beverly Hills condo building on Wednesday.
The aim was to serve documents on Bieber related to a lawsuit filed by paparazzo Walter Lee, who alleges the singer hit him with his Ferrari in June 2013.
By now, the Biebs is a veteran when it comes to lawsuits and process servers .
X17 Online reports, Justin sent a bodyguard down to the condo garage to act as a decoy by pulling out in the singer’s red Ferrari, just minutes before Bieber left in a black Range Rover.
On the video linked below, the female process server is heard and seen asking paparazzi waiting outside if the driver of the red Ferrari was Justin. One of the photographers replied, “No” and directed her attention to the condo’s garage door as Bieber emerged in his range rover.
When the server peered into the tinted vehicle and recognized the singer, she threw the lawsuit papers at his windshield.
( Photo: The process server hurled legal documents at Justin Bieber as he left the condo garage in his Range Rover. )
The document serving came the morning after Bieber threw a party at the condo. E! News reports the singer voluntarily called time on the bash after police were called out twice. It’s also reported his lease at the condo is up in October and the party was a last hurrah and a homecoming.
Under California law, legal notices of a lawsuit can be drop served, or placed as near as possible to the target if the person refuses to accept them but is recognized by the process server.
According to X17 Online , Lee filed his lawsuit on June 25, 2014. The photographer alleges Bieber struck him “negligently, carelessly, recklessly, wantonly and unlawfully” in his (then) white Ferrari and caused injuries from which he may not recover, when the star drove off from the Laugh Factory comedy store in West Hollywood in June 2013.
In fact, following an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after the incident into whether Bieber had knowingly left the scene of an accident , the police cleared him of any wrongdoing in the case.
At the time, Justin claimed via his attorney that he was unaware of contact with Lee when he drove off in his Ferrari .
On July 31, 2013, Los Angeles County District Attorney prosecutors announced they were not filing criminal charges against the singer for allegedly hitting a paparazzo.
The prosecutors’ filing rejection statement said Bieber’s claim that he did not know he had hit someone was “reasonable and credible” given the chaos of the situation. Prosecutors said that Bieber pulled away from the curb through a “clear path,” when Walter “suddenly stepped in front of” the vehicle.
The statement declared Walter was “at fault in the collision due to being in the roadway and blocking Bieber’s vehicle.”
“There were over a dozen paparazzi surrounding his [Bieber’s] car and on the sidewalk, and it was noisy with camera flashes and bright lights surrounding him,” the document continued.
( Video: The paparazzi were repeatedly asked to clear a path by Bieber and a bodyguard .)
“Given the scene and the stress of the situation, it is likely that Bieber did not know he had hit Walter,” the statement added.
In Walter’s lawsuit, he claims his “severe” injuries include lacerations, hematomas, deep abrasions on his left knee and leg and deep venous thrombosis,” and he “may never work again.”
That claim was somewhat undermined when TMZ reported earlier this year that Lee filmed the Biebs’ attendance at a charity Roller Rink skate-off in Glendale, California on June 28.
The website published the footage that Lee somehow found the strength to shoot.
[ Images via Focu-Poersch/AKM-GSI .]