‘Not my finest moment’: Justin Bieber reflects on his Miami Beach arrest back in 2014
Regrets, Justin Bieber has a few.
On Saturday, the seven year anniversary of his arrest in Miami Beach, the pop singer looked back upon the traumatizing experience as a wake-up call.
The 26-year-old posted a picture of himself being led away in handcuffs surrounded by law enforcement officers.
“Seven years ago today I was arrested, not my finest hour. Not proud of where I was at in my life. I was hurting, unhappy, confused, angry, mislead, misunderstood and angry at god,” he told his 160 million Instagram followers, managing to throw in a joke about his leather pants.
Archive alert: On Jan. 23, 2014, Bieber, then 19, was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, driving with an expired license and resisting arrest “without violence,” after being pulled over on Pine Tree Drive in a rented yellow Lamborghini.
According to a police report, Biebs and some pals who had been partying at now closed SET nightclub were engaging in a drag race on the residential road that had been blocked off by the mega celeb’s private security team.
Post arrest, the native Canadian admitted to smoking marijuana and taking prescription medication, and a urine test showed he was positive for marijuana and Xanax, but his blood-alcohol level was well below the legal limit.
Bieber did not do jail time, copping a plea deal. A judge ordered the entertainer to attend a 12-hour anger-management course and view videos of DUI cases that ended in tragedy. He also paid $50,000 to Our Kids, helping victims of human trafficking.
“The strengths and weaknesses of the case motivated everyone to seek this appropriate resolution,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in August 2014. “The ultimate purpose of the Miami Beach Police Department’s initial traffic stop was to end some rash juvenile-type conduct before a tragedy occurred.”
Bieber, who has since married Hailey Baldwin and found religion, ended the post with a nugget of advice: “My encouragement to you is to ‘let your past be a reminder of how far god has brought you. Don’t allow shame to ruin your ‘today’ let the forgiveness of Jesus take over and watch your life blossom into all that God has designed you to be. LOVE YOU GUYS WITH MY WHOLE HEART.”
