How Three Celebs Did the Crimes But Didn’t Do the Time

While we hate to admit it, celebrities seem to live by different rules than the rest of us. The treatment that stars get from the adoring public and, seemingly, the law, seems to enforce this on a regular basis. Where a non-famous person might have the book thrown at them for certain offenses, celebrities seem to have a “get-out-of-jail-free” card at times, walking away from crimes that the rest of us would not. Take these three cases for example:
Justin Bieber
On January 24, 2014, the pop singer was arrested for DUI, driving with an expired license, and for resisting arrest. The singer was apprehended while drag racing his vehicle in Miami, Florida. The toxicology report revealed marijuana and Xanax were present in Bieber’s system, yet his BAC was below the legal limit at the time of his arrest. Because he was only 19 years old at the time of the arrest, he was still charged with underage drinking.
Bieber pleaded not guilty to all charges. Shockingly, he was released from jail the following day on a $2,500 bond. The star’s now iconic mugshot was subsequently released to the public, showing Bieber smiling for the camera. Despite being visibly intoxicated with a look of “stupor” on his face, Bieber’s lawyers claimed that the arresting officers had exaggerated the allegations against their client and were investigating eyewitness accounts that would corroborate those claims.
Bieber did face one (very minor) charge: resisting arrest with violence.
Mark Wahlberg
In 1992, Mark Wahlberg (at the time, known as Marky Mark) avoided criminal charges for assault and battery when he settled with his accuser only days before his trial was set to start. The victim was a twenty-year-old bodyguard who claimed that the singer/actor’s bodyguard held him down while Wahlberg kicked him in the face repeatedly. The victim suffered severe injuries and had to have his jaw wired shut as a result of the assault. After the unspecified settlement, the victim claimed that he was satisfied and did not want to pursue further charges.
Wahlberg’s violent past continues to resurface in the media. In December 2014, Leonard Taylor, Wahlberg’s former bodyguard, filed a $2 million civil lawsuit against him stating that Wahlberg punched him in the face and bit him on the arm. Taylor later dropped the suit, and no charges were filed.
Taylor added he did not believe that Wahlberg should be pardoned for the racially-motivated assaults he committed in April 1988 against Thanh Lam and Hao Trinh. Amazingly, these crimes happened on the same day. Walhberg attacked Lam with a 5-foot-stick while screaming racial slurs at him and then punched the victim in the face, sending him to the ground in pain.
In a profound display of compassion and forgiveness, Trinh, a Vietnam war vet who fought alongside U.S. soldiers against anti-Communist forces, stated he believed that Wahlberg deserved a second chance.
OJ Simpson
On October 3, 1995, Former NFL Football Superstar OJ Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 brutal double-murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman after an internationally publicized criminal trial that lasted 252 days (the People v. Simpson). Simpson regularly abused Nicole and had no alibi for the time frame of the murders. Forty minutes after the murders were committed, a limousine driver sent to drive Simpson to the airport spotted a man in dark clothing rushing up the drive of his Rockingham estate. A few minutes later, Simpson spoke to the driver who let him. The driver attempted to contact Simpson about 25 minutes beforehand and received no answer. Subsequently, a single leather glove was found outside Simpson’s home with his DNA, along with Ron and Nicole’s. Upon arrest, Simpson had a wound on his hand. More DNA tests were conducted and confirmed his blood matched the blood found at the crime scene.
Although the prosecution had a mountain of evidence to prove Simpson’s guilt, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers called that evidence into question by claiming that Simpson was framed by racist police officers and casting doubt about how DNA evidence was collected. He was found not guilty of the criminal charges. However, in 1997, a civil court awarded a judgment against Simpson for their wrongful deaths, but it has been reported that to this day, he has repaid only a tiny fraction of the $33.5 million judgment he owes the victim’s families.