Detective talks cracking Bieber egg caper

Justin Bieber already had a rough 2013, and now 2014 doesn’t appear to be shaping up to be much better. On January 14, authorities swarmed his California mansion to execute a search warrant connected to an investigation over a reported egg-throwing incident. It was just the latest in Bieber’s troubles …

Right before 2014 kicked off, Bieber threatened to retire after a spate of bad publicity, including being accused of everything from speeding to spitting. The news made the Beliebers very sad but turned out not to be the case.

On New Year’s Day in 2013, a photographer was killed crossing the street after taking pictures of Bieber’s Ferrari. Bieber, who wasn’t present at the scene, said in a statement: “While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim.”

In January 2013, Bieber was photographed holding what TMZ identified as marijuana. He poked fun of the incident when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in February. “I also heard he got busted for smoking weed and he’s really sorry about it and that people make mistakes and that he’s never going to do it again,” Bieber said while playing a character during a skit with Vanessa Bayer.

At the end of January 2013, a Twitpic appearing to show the singer touching a female fan’s chest went viral. Both the “Belieber” and Bieber’s rep denied he was touching her breast.

Unfortunately for Bieber, his 19th birthday in March was kind of a downer. After being snubbed by the Grammys, Bieber headed for London to celebrate his big day. But it ended up being what he tweeted was his <a href=”http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmarquee.blogs.cnn.com%2F2013%2F03%2F04%2Fbieber-gives-the-story-behind-worst-birthday%2F%22%3E”worst birthday.” Not only was he ragged on by actress Olivia Wilde for going shirtless in the city, he also had a bit of beef with a “weak a** club.”

Bieber ticked off his fans in March after he showed up a reported two hours late to a concert at London’s O2 Arena. He disputed that in a tweet, however, saying he was only 40 minutes behind schedule.

Bieber later wound up sick in a London hospital. Being a lusted-after star, it’s not surprising that he tried to show how “well” he felt by posting a shirtless photo of himself online.

Bieber and photographers, we’ve learned by now, don’t mix. As he exited the hospital at the end of his turbulent week, the singer got into a shouting match with a paparazzo in London, telling the photographer that he’d “f*** him up.”

After he was ragged on by Wilde for going topless in London, Bieber strolled through a Polish airport terminal sans shirt on March 25.

Bieber lost his pet monkey, Mally, when the capuchin was taken by custom officials in Germany at the end of March. Mally is shown here in the quarantine station at the Munich-Riem animal shelter in Munich.

In April, Bieber visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam — and was promptly criticized for saying that he hoped the teen, who died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, would have been a “Belieber.” Visitors to the Anne Frank Facebook page had plenty to say. “Glad he went, but, the last sentence is VERY self serving. he missed the lessons of Anne totally,” wrote one observer.

In May, a fan rushed Bieber on stage and attempted to grab him during a concert in the United Arab Emirates. Later that month, a safe in a stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, was raided after a Bieber performance.

May didn’t end on a high note, either. As Bieber accepted the Milestone Award at the Billboard Music Awards, “very loud boos” competed with “very loud cheers,” the magazine reported.

In June, another chapter was added to Bieber’s history book of driving drama. The singer was reportedly involved in a Los Angeles accident involving a pedestrian.

A leaked video in July seemed to show Bieber relieving himself in a janitor’s mop bucket and then spraying a photo of Bill Clinton with what appeared to be a cleaner fluid while saying, “F*** Bill Clinton.” Bieber later apologized to the former president, but personalities like Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali had a field day.

Was he saving his energy for his fans, or just courting more controversy? In October, the day after a concert in Beijing, Bieber was snapped letting his bodyguards carry him up the stairs at the Great Wall of China.

While on tour in early November, Bieber yet again made headlines, this time with some sex-related scandal. The New York Post’s Page Six alleged that Bieber had been spotted exiting a brothel while in Brazil. Then, a YouTube video sparked gossip that he’d done something less than innocent with the young woman featured in the clip. Bieber’s camp has had no response on the chatter.

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Los Angeles (CNN) — The security video system in Justin Bieber’s mansion could be the best witness to the teen pop star’s alleged egg attack on a neighbor.

“It was extensive,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. David Thompson said of the system. “I believe it was installed very well and covered all areas of Mr. Bieber’s house. His security system was well operated.”

A dozen deputies, armed with a search warrant from a judge, seized the hard drives that hold the security video from last week.

Detectives are scouring the video frame-by-frame for clues as to who tossed eggs from Bieber’s property onto the house next door in the exclusive Calabasas, California, community last Thursday night, Thompson said. “It will either prove or disprove, or maybe neither.”

If video from that night is missing, detectives will call for help, he said. “We have a high-tech crew that works on such things, depending on what we find they can tell if it’s been deleted, altered or stopped at a certain time or turned off,” Thompson said. “If it’s 24-hour security video and it doesn’t show a particular day, you can make your own conclusions.”

While the neighbor who accused Bieber of launching the egg assault does not have a similar video system, TMZ did obtain video of the incident recorded by the accuser. While the attackers can’t be seen, they are heard. Detectives could use test that audio to determine whether there’s a match to Bieber’s voice.

Bieber and his representatives have stayed silent about the incident, declining to comment when contacted by CNN.

Although the singer spoke to deputies during their search — telling them who was in the house, for example — he has not talked to investigators about the felony vandalism allegations, Thompson said. His lawyer would need to be present for that to happen, he said.

Justin Bieber’s bad year: A guide

Bieber’s wake up call

Bieber was asleep when investigators knocked on his door Wednesday morning, Thompson said. The security staff answered and let them in.

The warrant allowed deputies to go room by room through the sprawling estate, which is how they busted Lil Za — real name Xavier Smith — who was a house guest. They found suspected Ecstasy — aka Molly — and Xanax near the 20-year-old rapper’s bed, Thompson said. Lil Za was arrested on a felony drug charge. He was later charged with felony vandalism for allegedly busting a jail phone while waiting to be bailed out.

Despite all the egg jokes dished out, this is a serious case, Thompson said. The neighbor’s house suffered an estimated $20,000 in damage, which makes the alleged vandalism a felony. It could land the offender in jail, but at the every least a long probation term and community service. Add to that the legal bills and time attending court hearings.

Deputies at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, which serves an affluent section of Los Angeles County just east of Malibu, have become familiar with Bieber, 19, since he moved into a $6.4 million home in The Oaks neighborhood two years ago.

Neighbors have dialed 911 several times to complain that the teenage multimillionaire was speeding down their residential streets in his high-performance cars. One neighbor accused Bieber of spitting in his face during a heated confrontation last March. Deputies have responded to complaints about loud parties at Bieber’s place.

Except for warnings, nothing was done. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office concluded that they couldn’t prove the spitting or speeding cases in court, so they declined to prosecute.

Prosecutors also rejected a misdemeanor battery complaint from a photographer who accused Bieber of attacking him in the parking lot of a Calabasas shopping center as he was taking photos of Bieber and his then-girlfriend, Selena Gomez, in May 2012.

“We didn’t do this search warrant to send a message,” Thompson said Tuesday. “That’s not what we do, but we hope maybe that understanding the gravity of this will change some of the behavior.”

If detectives find evidence that Justin Bieber attacked his neighbor with eggs, they will present their findings to the district attorney for possible prosecution. This could happen in a few days or weeks, Thompson said.

Until then, Bieber is free to roam the world, he said. “I don’t feel that he’ll flee in any way.”

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