Bieber may have travel troubles if guilty of assault

Article originally published on February 3, 2014 by Advocate Daily.

If teen popstar Justin Bieber is found guilty of assaulting a limo driver after a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game, he may have incredible difficulty getting back into the United States, where he currently lives, Toronto criminal lawyer Aaron Harnett tells Entertainment Tonight Canada. 

“Assault is viewed by them as a crime of moral turpitude and if you are found guilty of a crime of moral turpitude you may be found inadmissible to America,” Harnett says.

The 19-year-old Bieber recently turned himself in to Toronto police to be booked on an assault charge, another in a long list of recent run-ins with the law, both north and south of the border.

“Quite frankly, the charges for these kinds of allegations are often dropped if the person charged does some act of attrition or some charity donation or some other mea culpa,” says Harnett. “There is no expectation that he would receive jail or a criminal record.”

Fingerprints and mugshots were taken of the young Stratford, Ont. singer, however, Harnett says they won’t be made public by police.

“They don’t release arrest reports, they don’t release mugshots,” says Harnett. “These are people who have not yet been found guilty and accordingly are deserving of some privacy.”