MIAMI―Singer Justin Bieber was arrested on Thursday, January 23 for allegedly driving under the influence.
A police report obtained by TMZ from the Miami Beach Police Department describes the incident. It began when officers noticed two black SUVs following two Lamborghinis, one red and one yellow down a street.
The report noted that it seemed as if the SUVs were preventing traffic from passing up the two sports cars, to allow them to drag race through the streets. The officers stopped the vehicles when they noticed that the Lamborghinis were going 55 to 60 miles-per-hour in a residential area with a 30 mile-per-hour speed limit.
The officer that pulled over Bieber’s yellow Lamborghini noticed a strong odor of alcohol emanating from the vehicle and that the singer had bloodshot eyes. Bieber allegedly began to curse at the officer when he was asked to step outside of the car.
The officer asked Bieber to submit to a patdown, to which Bieber refused. After some resistance, two officers managed to arrest Bieber and he was taken to the police station for booking. The driver of the red Lamborghini, an R&B singer named Khalil Sharieff, was also arrested.
Bieber was charged with driving under the influence, resisting without violence and driving with an expired license. He appeared in front of a judge later Thursday morning on closed circuit television, where Judge Joseph P. Farina handed down a bail amount of $2,500. The singer paid bail and was released from jail shortly after 11:00am Pacific Standard Time, according to TMZ.
In a separate incident, authorities are looking into allegations that Opa-Locka Police officers gave an unauthorized escort for Bieber on January 20 after arriving on his private jet in Miami-Dade County.
On January 9, Bieber and some friends were alleged to have egged a home in Calabasas around 7:40 p.m. The homeowner, according to the LA County Sheriff’s Department, claims that the damages to the home were estimated to be around $20,000.
Sheriff’s officials executed a search warrant of Bieber’s home in Calabasas on January 14 to “recover video surveillance or other possible evidence” related to the January 9 incident. It was there that Xavier Smith, 20, was arrested for felony drug possession.
Bieber was detained, but not arrested. Investigators did manage to secure several pieces of evidence from the home, but they have yet to reveal what the content of their search turned out to be. The Sheriff’s Department noted in a news release that the penalty for vandalism where the damages are over $10,000, the accused can face up to a year in jail and a $50,000 fine.
By Alex Nochez
