Showing posts with label judge rules. Show all posts
Justin Bieber’s private parts won’t be exposed in video shown at DUI trial, judge rules
The court pointed to Bieber’s right to privacy in its decision not to release police video that shows the ‘Boyfriend’ singer’s genitalia during a urine test.
Justin Bieber, pictured documenting his tattoos at the Miami Beach police station after his Jan. 23 arrest, won’t have the humiliation of having video showing him urinating for a drug test shown at his DUI trial.
Police video showing Justin Bieber's private parts is getting snipped.
A Florida judge ruled Tuesday that two of five video clips depicting Bieber at a Miami Beach Police station in January show his genitalia during a urine test and must be edited to protect his privacy.
"Mr. Bieber's right to privacy is paramount," Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield said in court, according to the Associated Press. "He has not lost his right to privacy, and that is what is important here."
Bieber, who turned 20 on Saturday, was fighting the release of the clips in question, saying they showed him in "various states of undress" with his "intimate personal parts" exposed.
AP
A now infamous police video taken Jan. 23 seems to show Justin Bieber having trouble balancing and yelling at police officers.
RELATED: BIEBER BOOKING VIDEO RELEASED BY PROSECUTORS
He argued his right to privacy outweighed the public's right to know.
News outlets previously requested all police video showing Bieber in custody and received,as of last week, about 10 hours of footage under Florida's liberal open records laws.
One previously released clip showed Bieber's police pat-down, and another showed the Canadian crooner looking unsteady during his sobriety test.
AP
Bieber and his pal Khalil Amir Sharieff were arrested and charged with allegedly drag-racing on a Miami Beach Street, resisting arrest without violence and driving under the influence.
The "Baby" singer was arrested Jan. 23 after a cop allegedly spotted him and R&B singer Khalil Amir Sharieff drag racing loaner sports cars on a sleepy residential street in Miami Beach.
Bieber cussed out cops with multiple F-bombs and admitted he'd been smoking weed, police said.
He was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license.
AP
Police also say Justin Bieber told authorities he had consumed alcohol, smoked marijuana and taken prescription drugs.
He had "extreme difficulty" giving his two Breathalyzer tests, police said, and his readings registered 0.014 and 0.011, below the legal limit for underage drivers.
His urine sample came back dirty for marijuana and Alprazolam, also known as Xanax, police said.
PHOTOS: JUSTIN BIEBER ARRESTED: MEET HIS MYSTERY GAL PAL CHANTEL JEFFRIES
Bieber attorney Roy Black said he was satisfied with the video ruling Tuesday.
AP
Justin Bieber shows police some of his many tattoos.
He said the three clips to be released without redaction were shot from an angle that was far enough away to protect Bieber's privacy.
The public records unit of the State Attorney's Office said Tuesday it needed "a few days" to redact the video clips and get final approval.
Judge Altfield set another status conference for next week in the case.
Bieber's recent legal woes also include a felony vandalism probe in California over his alleged egging of a neighbor and a Toronto charge that he assaulted a limo driver in December.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney is now reviewing the alleged egg assault and will decide whether or not to file charges.
ndillon@nydailynews.com
News Source: www.nydailynews.com
Censored Bieber police video may be released, judge rules
MIAMI —
A judge on Tuesday ruled that video images of a partially-clad Justin Bieberwhile the pop singer was in police custody in Florida can be released, but only after blocking out his genitals.The video clips included Bieber providing a urine sample for a drug test following his arrest by police in Miami Beach in January on a charge of driving under the influence.
Lawyers for Bieber, who turned 20 on March 1, had argued that the police surveillance video showing him urinating was inappropriate and should be withheld to protect the Canadian singer's privacy.
"The Court finds that there exists a right to privacy as it relates to the exposure and dissemination of the Defendant's genitalia," Miami-Dade County Court Judge William Altfield said in a written ruling.
In a court hearing on the order, Altfield said that despite the public's right to full disclosure, "Bieber has not lost his expectation of dignity."
He said that while people in police custody have less expectation of privacy, they "are not like animals in a zoo to be filmed and photographed at will by the public or media."
The judge noted that what was at stake was the public access to evidence in court cases, not the media's First Amendment right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
"We want to issue our thanks to the court for spending so much time analyzing this issue ... and finding that even Mr Bieber has a right to privacy," said the singer's Miami attorney, Roy Black.
Bieber was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest and using an expired license after Miami Beach police say they caught him drag racing on January 23. Bieber pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Besides a small amount of alcohol, he had marijuana and prescription medication for anxiety in his system at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.
After Bieber's arrest, lawyers for the Miami Herald, CBS, the Associated Press and other media filed motions demanding all the video be released under Florida's broad public records law.
Reuters is not a party to the case.
Under Florida law, all evidence including photos and videos became public record once they are handed to the defense.
Three of the clips were to be released immediately without being altered while two others would be withheld until technicians can obscure Bieber's genitals, the judge ruled.
"Some type of technological technique will be used to shade or blacken out that area which would depict the objectionable images," he added.
Even though none of the clips clearly show Bieber urinating, in one clip the partition fails to fully block the camera view after he completed giving the sample, "thereby revealing an image of the Defendant's genitalia" according to the ruling. A second clip was also deemed "possibly revealing" of Bieber's private parts, the judge said.
Last week, prosecutors released to the media several hours of video surveillance footage of Bieber while he was in police custody, showing him being frisked, chatting with police, and doing push-ups in a holding cell. But clips of him giving the urine sample were withheld for review by the judge.
The pop star's private life has taken a seemingly tumultuous turn in the past year. Last month he was charged with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto.
The case is State of Florida v Justin Drew Bieber, B14-2900.
New Source: www.sun-sentinel.com
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