Justin Bieber will be charged with misdemeanor vandalism in a 7-month-old egging case and has reportedly agreed a plea deal in the case.
Justin Bieber is to be charged with misdemeanor vandalism for allegedly egging his former neighbor’s home in Calabasas, Los Angeles earlier this year, and has reportedly struck a plea deal in the case through his lawyers.
Citing sources, TMZ reports Bieber will not serve any jail time under the settlement terms, but will be placed on two years probation and ordered to perform community service.
Update : Some of those details have now changed and can be read here .
In addition, Bieber will reportedly be ordered to pay an – as yet – unspecified restitution sum to his ex neighbor. The neighbor previously claimed the egging caused damages of $20,000, reportedly due to expensive Venetian plaster work on his mansion which needs to be redone.
The singer’s lawyers are expected to make a statement post-arraignment, which takes place at 1:30 pm PDT today.
Bieber is not expected to be present in court.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has been reviewing the egging case since February following an investigation by the Sheriff’s Department, which recommended a more serious felony charge.
However, despite a report that a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office allegedly told the neighbor,”If this isn’t a felony, nothing is” – evidently District Attorney Jackie Lacey decided a misdemeanor charge for an offence involving eggs was more appropriate.
Bieber was accused by his estranged, ex-neighbor Jeffrey Schwartz of egging his house in the gated The Oaks enclave in Calabasas on January 9.
Under California Penal Code Section 594 , if physical damages from an act of vandalism are greater than $400 the D.A. has discretion to prosecute the offence as either a misdemeanor or a felony in what’s commonly known as “wobbler” cases.
Under the misdemeanor charge , Bieber could have faced up to one year served in a county jail as well as a fine if he had been convicted in a trial.
If he had been charged with a felony charge and convicted at trial, that sentence would have jumped to a maximum one to three years term and a fine of $10,000 and upwards, which the Biebs will reportedly be paying anyway.
Five days after the egging, L.A. Sheriffs executed a felony search warrant authorized police raid of the Bieber’s former Calabasas pad.
The raid saw 11 patrol cars, helicopters, investigators armed with guns and a battering ram roll up to the singer’s home, which he later sold to reality TV star Khloe Kardashian.
During the raid, Bieber’s surveillance video hard drives and iPhone were seized.
One of the singer’s pals, Lil Za – real name, Xavier Smith – was also arrested on suspicion of drug possession . Lab tests later confirmed one of the drugs in the 20-year-old rapper’s possession was MDMA, the other was Oxycontin.
Smith has since been sentenced to three years probation on the drug charge and ordered to attend an outpatient drug treatment program and work 20 days on a highway cleanup crew.
As reported by CNN , Bieber’s legal team met with prosecutors in March to try and persuade them to charge the singer with a misdemeanor rather than a felony, based on reasoning that the egging was “a silly prank” and that as Bieber has no criminal record it should be treated as a misdemeanor.
In addition to amateur video shot by the Schwartz family during the egging mess — in which Jeffrey can be heard engaging in an F-bomb trade-off with an unseen male, allegedly Justin — police claim the singer’s own home surveillance video implicates him.
In April, KTTV FOX 11 aired a portion of surveillance video removed from Justin’s former Calabasas home during the raid.
It revealed the blurry image of a male, which may or may not have been the singer, “high-fiving” other males in a Calabasas road the night of the egging while wearing a sweatshirt and cap allegedly also seen on an Instagram photo of Bieber that he posted the day after.
Detectives stated in an affidavit for a search warrant for Bieber’s Instagram account that the clothes worn by him in the photo matched a description given by Schwartz and his daughter, of attire that they allegedly witnessed Justin wearing while allegedly egging their home.
What’s your take on Bieber being charged with a misdemeanor vandalism charge instead of a felony and reportedly striking a plea deal? Fair or not?
[ Image via MTV.com .]