Justin Bieber and ex-flame Selena Gomez are among the prospective witnesses to be called by the plaintiff’s attorneys as both sides get ready for trial in a photographer’s lawsuit alleging the singer kicked and punched him in 2012 at a Calabasas shopping center.
According to a lawsuit filed in June 2013 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jose Osmin Hernandez Duran alleges he tried to photograph Bieber, now 20, and Gomez as they went to the movies at The Commons in Calabasas on May 27, 2012.
Duran’s lawyers state in their court papers that Bieber “was enraged that (Duran) and other paparazzi had been photographing Bieber and … Gomez as they walked out of the mall and then as Bieber struggled to pull his huge van out of the crowded mall parking lot.”
Bieber “jumped and kicked plaintiff in the chest, punched him in the jaw and shoved him up against a parked car,” Duran’s lawyers state in their court papers.
Duran’s attorneys also are tentatively planning on the testimony of Moshe Benabou, a former Bieber bodyguard who had accused the pop star of attacking him backstage at a concert. Benabou alleged in a lawsuit that Bieber hit him during a confrontation in October 2012. The two sides settled earlier this year.
A hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled Wednesday and trial of Duran’s lawsuit is set for Dec. 26.
