Did Justin Bieber Get Raped?
by Richard Sharp
It sounds outrageous and even offensive, but if a paternity suit filed against Justin Bieber in San Diego County is true, the answer is yes.
Technically speaking, based on California law, 20-year-old Mariah Yeater is claiming she committed statutory rape against Justin Bieber last year.
An explanation:
In a paternity lawsuit filed in San Diego County this week, Yeater alleged that she had sex with Bieber backstage at a concert when he was only 16 and she was 19.
She claims it was consensual and short-lived (lasting only 30 seconds according to some rather embarassing court documents), but she claims that in the process, Bieber got her pregnant.
Yeater is suing Bieber for child support for her three-month-old boy Tristyn Anthony Markhouse Yeater, and is demanding he take a paternity test.
Bieber's reps have of course denied the allegations, saying: "While we haven't yet seen the lawsuit, it's sad that someone would fabricate malicious, defamatory, and demonstrably false claims. We will vigorously pursue all available legal remedies to defend and protect Justin against these allegations."
So why rape? If this alleged sex did in fact occur (and Yeater has now testified under the threat of perjury that it did), it's a pretty clear-cut case of statutory rape based on California state law.
According to "California Penal Code: Section 261.5 Unlawful Sexual Intercourse":
"Unlawful sexual intercourse is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator, if the person is a minor. For the purposes of this section, a "minor" is a person under the age of 18 years and an "adult" is a person who is at least 18 years of age."
Yeater was 19 at the time, Bieber was 16. Interestingly, whether Yeater's alleged sex act with Bieber was a felony or misdemeanor at the time would depend on this clause:
"Any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is more than three years younger than the perpetrator is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison."
So the severity of how the court views the crime, and whether it is viewed as a felony or a misdemeanor, could depend on their actual birthdays. For the record, Bieber's is March 1st. No reports on when Mariah Yeater's is.
California defense attorney Steve Cron tells the New York Post that while in most cases, this stuff just gets let go due to common sense, in this case, because the case is so high profile, that might not be the case.
“Under a normal situation, no harm, no foul ... I would think [prosecutors] might let it go. But under these circumstances, the DA’s office has to show they’re not treating women differently, not treating a celebrity differently, [and] they might have to do something.”
Just to be clear, there's nothing funny about rape, even when it's Justin Bieber, and there's also nothing funny about the potential year in jail Yeater could face for allegedly de-flowering a 16-year-old pop star.
Still, the realistic prospect of both a Justin Bieber paternity case and a Justin Beiber rape case in the next few months is a thoroughly bizarre chain of events for one of America's cleanest cut pop icons.