Bieber convicted of careless driving

In a tiny courtroom in Ontario farming country, far from the flashbulb glare of Los Angeles, bad boy superstar Justin Bieber was convicted Thursday of careless driving and found guilty of assault over a violent confrontation with photographers last summer involving his then girlfriend, the actress and singer Selena Gomez.

Under a plea deal, the Crown dropped a dangerous driving charge over the events of Aug. 29 last year, when Bieber drove a fourwheel all-terrain vehicle into a van that two photographers were using to stake him out at his family’s rural property, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Bieber then started swinging fists at one of them, Todd Gillis, 47, who said he was able to fend off the enraged heartthrob.

“Why are you here? You can’t be here, you can’t be doing this. Get out of here and leave me alone,” Bieber was yelling, according to the agreed facts, read out by Crown prosecutor Mike Murdoch.

Bieber landed no more than three punches through the window of the parked van, then “realized he wasn’t getting anywhere,” as Gillis is a much larger man, “twice his size,” as Gillis put it.

Still, Gillis had a sore shoulder afterward, and he and the other photographer, Sean O’Neill, 32, both of Toronto, were “very much upset,” Murdoch said.

Neither made a victim i mpact statement and, in fact, both pleaded guilty to trespassing the following day on the Bieber property near Stratford, where Bieber grew up before becoming a global superstar.

Appearing in court by video link from a lawyer’s office in California, wearing a white dress shirt, standing with his hands folded in front of him, Bieber declined to speak on his own behalf when offered the chance by Judge Kathryn McKerlie. “No ma’am,” he said.

She imposed a fine of $750 for careless driving, and granted an absolute discharge on the assault charge.

“The lesson in all of this is to think before you act in the future,” the judge said.

Stratford’s most famous son, who has walked the tightrope between musical icon and cautionary tale, still considers Stratford a kind of home, and it is important to him as a respite from his high-profile life, in which his frequent transgressions are documented by a ravenous celebrity media, his lawyer, Brian Greenspan, said.