Justin Bieber pleaded guilty on Thursday, June 4, to charges of assault and careless driving. The incident took place on Aug. 29 last year near his father's home in Stratford, Ontario wherein the singer crashed an ATV into a photographer's van.
The 21-year old was in the company of his then-girlfriend Selena Gomez at the time. Bieber reportedly crashed the ATV into the vehicle belonging to a man taking photos of the couple. After the crash, the photographer and the singer got into a physical altercation that led to Bieber's arrest on Sept. 1.
Bieber appeared in court via Skype from the office of lawyer Howard Weitzman in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him, the singer's lawyer, Brian Greenspan, confirmed to reporters. His plea was accepted, and Bieber was fined $750 for his actions, escaping both jail time and probation.
According to People Magazine, Justice Kathryn McKerlie told Bieber that "the lesson in all of this is to think before you act. Everybody in life, no matter who they are, encounters difficult and disappointing and surprising situations."
Greenspan, spoke to Us Weekly and said that the absolute discharge for the assault "recognized the fact that it was an incident that was somehow provoked and that it lasted less than a minute."
"The assault was described even by the photographer as a couple of slaps — certainly three at the most — that he deflected with his shoulder," Greenspan added.
This was not the first arrest faced by the "Heartbreaker" singer in recent years. Accusations of reckless driving and vandalism in 2012 and 2013 led to Bieber's two arrests at the end of 2013 — for assaulting a photographer in Argentina in November and for assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto in December. The Toronto charges were eventually dropped, but the singer was arrested once more for egging a neighbor's home in Calabasas, California on Jan. 9, 2014. Two weeks later, Bieber was arrested in Miami on suspicion of a DUI and for driving with an expired driver's license.
