Multiple charges could cost him benefit of the doubt and curtail travel.
Justin Bieber may have caught a break Friday, but his legal woes are by no means over.
The private jet carrying the 19-year-old singer from Canada to New York for Super Bowl parties was detained at the Teterboro, N.J. airport Friday evening after officials noted that they smelled marijuana. After several hours of questioning and a canine team search that yielded no drugs, he was allowed to go on his way.
But the singer is still facing a full docket of legal issues in both his home and adopted countries. This week, he was charged with assault in Toronto stemming from an altercation with a limousine driver. Meanwhile, he's out on bail following last week's DUI case in Miami, where a toxicology report found pot and the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax in his system. And he's the subject of a vandalism investigation in Los Angeles after egging his neighbor's home.
"The fact that you've got three is a heck of a lot worse than one," Stan Goldman, a professor at Los Angeles' Loyola Law School tells the Associated Press. And should any of the cases end in conviction, he's less likely to receive the benefit of the doubt in the others.
Should Bieber be convicted in any of these incidents, international travel would become a headache, with his immigration status scrutinized on every trip -- and every itinerary subject to a judge's approval.
In an interview with the Associated Press, criminal defense attorney Andrew Flier explained that, "multiple convictions -- even on misdemeanors -- could be troublesome to the non-citizen."
Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY 9:16 a.m. EST February 1, 2014
