SAN DIEGO, November 4, 2011—Maury Povich must be beside himself with excitement reading the bombshell news about the paternity suit filed against pop star and teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.
Mariah P. Yeater, 20, filed a paternity suit against Bieber, 17, in San Diego County Superior Court earlier this week, claiming that Bieber is the father of her baby boy born at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, California this July. Yeater alleges she had sex with Bieber following a concert at Staples Center in Los Angeles in October 2010.
No father was named on the child’s birth certificate.
Mariah Yeater filed a paternity suit this week against Justin Bieber. M. Yeater/MySpace
Word got out and the uproar by the Beliebers was immediate, loud, and vicious. Bieber doesn’t just have fans. He has an entire army willing to go to war for him. Within 24 hours there were several dozen Facebook pages devoted to trashing Mariah P. Yeater.
"Mariah Yeater Is Crazy" is one of the milder titles.
After I got over being a bit ill from the details of the alleged encounter (involving a public bathroom and claims of Bieber’s virginity), the legal details are legitimately of interest.
It’s easy to make an accusation of paternity. Once Yeater did so, Bieber will be forced to submit to a paternity test, unless he freely admits in a voluntary Declaration of Paternity that he is the father. These are his only choices.
If Bieber is the father, he will pay and he will pay dearly. In California, there is a guideline formula for calculating child support that is based on incomes and based on the percentage of time spent with the child. This means if he is the baby daddy (reaching now for an antacid), there may be a custody issue as well.
Case law can offer Bieber some protection given that he is considered a “high earner.” No kidding. This 17-year-old Canadian superstar made $53 million in 2010, number three on Forbes Magazine’s list of highest earning celebrities behind only Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey. His net worth is estimated at between $65 and $85 million.
As long as Bieber agrees to a reasonable (meaning BIG) amount of child support, he can get out of the legally required disclosures to prove his actual income so support can be calculated, which becomes a public record. If I were representing Bieber, offering $30,000 per month plus would be a reasonable figure and much less than the guideline figure assuming his 2010 earning figure to be correct.
Mariah Yeater, her baby and her entire family would never have to worry about being evicted again.
I notice that while Bieber’s “people” issued a strong statement of denial, Bieber himself has not vehemently tweeted that he did not have sex with “that woman!”
Another legal twist is that Yeater would have been 19 and Bieber would have been 16 if this alleged sexual encounter turns out to be true, making it statutory rape, Bieber being the "rapee."
The Los Angeles Police Department says no report was filed (no kidding) but it could investigate the allegation as a violation of the law.
Force does not need to be involved in statutory rape. It is a simple matter of age. The age of legal consent in California is 18. Too bad these kids didn’t have their fun in Las Vegas. The legal age of consent in Nevada is 16.
If the parties involved have a three-year age difference or less, the crime is a misdemeanor with a possible one-year jail term. If the age difference is more than three years or one of the parties involved is under 17, this is a felony crime with a possible state prison term of up to four years.
Jail might be the safest place for Yeater right now.
Bieber’s fans have made numerous threats and she might be the most hated woman in North America at this moment. Not a lot is known about her, though a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune says she and her mother were evicted the month after the baby was born from an apartment in the community of Lakeside in east San Diego County for failing to pay their rent.
Lakeside isn’t exactly Beverly Hills. The story also claims Yeater’s mother filed a paternity suit in 1997.
Justin Bieber has a lot of explaining to do to girlfriend Selena Gomez. AP.
Justin, listen to Lawyer Myra. This one is a no-brainer, baby daddy. Take it private and get out of the limelight NOW. Protect your boyish image with the adoring fans that have made you world famous and insanely rich.
Immediately agree to pay for your baby mama’s attorney, the DNA tests, and get into private mediation at warp speed. This hearing is in a public forum on December 15, 2011 and while the courtroom can be sealed to everyone because of Bieber’s “tender” age that place will be a media circus. The records can remain sealed and you can go back to your celebrity girlfriend Selena Gomez, your puppy and your whirlwind life.
As usual, the loser in this equation is the child who grows up without his famous father present in his life, forever labeled as the love child of someone who walked away from him.
My final piece of advice to Justin: Don’t go on the Maury Povich Show, please. Hold out for Jerry Springer instead. Much classier.
Myra Chack Fleischer founded Fleischer & Associates in 2001 and serves as Lead Counsel with a focus on divorce, property, custody and support, settlement agreements, mediation, asset division and family law appeals. Read more Legally Speaking in the Communities at The Washington Times. Follow Fleischer & Associates on Facebook and on Twitter @LawyerMyra
Copyright © 2011 by Fleischer & Associates, Attorneys at Law
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