In one corner we have the media and Florida's notoriously progressive open record laws. In the other we have diminutive pop mischief maker Justin Bieber.
The media, of course, had a field day when Bieber was arrested last month for supposedly drag racing while high down a Miami Beach residential street, but they haven't had enough of him yet. They want more video. Specifically video of Bieber in custody, which the Miami Herald's attorney says should be made public. However, the Bieb's defense team has filed an injection hoping to block the release of any more video.
Last week, the Miami Beach Police Department released surveillance video of Justin being patted down in a station:
Bieber's local defense team, lead by Roy Black, wants further video blocked from release. A motion filed in Miami-Dade Court claims that further surveillance videos would show Bieber "in various states of undress, which show intimate personal parts of the defendant's body." Yes, video of Bieber urinating into a cup for his drug tape exists out there.
Other parts of the surveillance video show Bieber stumbling around his cell.
Though, everyone from gossip mongers TMZ to the Pulitzer Prize-winning publication the Miami Herald wants their hands on the video.
"There is no basis in the public records law for this video tape to be withheld from the public and it will be Mr. Bieber's burden to somehow establish that this otherwise public record should be withheld," Scott Ponce, an attorney for The Miami Herald, told that very paper.
So far no hearing date has been set to decide the issue.
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