Is Justin Bieber a Dead-Beat Dad Or Rape Victim?

I rarely take much interest in celebrity story, but one legal stories this week caught my eye: a woman who is seeking paternity liability from Justin Bieber. What is fascinating is that it would seem likely that any paternity payment would be accompanied by a possible charge of statutory rape. The alleged 30-second tryst after the concert occurred when Bieber was just 16 in a state (California) with a statutory date of 18.

In this case, the woman is 20 years old with a three-month old child. That would seem to confirm that she was an adult having sex with a child.

Mariah Yeater says that the occasion of her impregnation was also the date Bieber lost his virginity. That later point would only seem to aggravate the claim of statutory rape. She claims to have had sex with him at the Staples Center on the night of October 25, 2010 after a show. She says that they had relations in a “private area” known more commonly as a bathroom.

This is a high-risk claim which, even if successful in forcing a DNA test, could result in his not being the father but in her being a criminal defendant.

It is interesting how these cases involving celebrities often disregard of the statutory rape implications as in the case of the Spears controversy. Yet we still see a steady stream of disturbing prosecutions, including allegations of different treatment given males versus females.