Mariah Yeater: Paternity Suit, DNA Test, and Collapse

Mariah Yeater is the California woman behind the 2011 Justin Bieber paternity suit, a short-lived case she filed in San Diego Superior Court claiming the singer had fathered her infant son after a backstage encounter at the Staples Center. She withdrew the lawsuit within about two weeks, after her original attorneys resigned, text messages surfaced suggesting another man was the father, and Bieber voluntarily submitted to a DNA test that he and his team used to publicly clear his name. No refiling ever materialized, and no defamation suit against Yeater was ever reported as filed.

What Yeater Alleged

Yeater filed the paternity suit on October 31, 2011, seeking a court-ordered DNA test and child support.¹²³

In her declaration, she said a security guard had invited her backstage after Bieber’s October 25, 2010 concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and that she and the singer had a sexual encounter in a backstage bathroom.¹ She was 19 at the time of the alleged encounter. Bieber was 16.⁴

Bieber’s Denial and the DNA Test

Bieber said publicly the story was “completely made up” and that he had never met Yeater.⁵ His spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, called the claims “malicious, defamatory, and demonstrably false.”⁶ His attorney, Howard Weitzman, accused Yeater and unnamed “co-conspirators” of trying to extort the singer and said no settlement discussions had occurred or would occur.⁷ The team also said it would pursue a defamation lawsuit once a DNA test cleared him.

Bieber took the test on November 18, 2011, in New Jersey, after the lawsuit had already been pulled.⁸ On “The View,” he said he did it because he wanted “everything to be out in the open.”⁹

Why the Lawsuit Collapsed

The case lasted barely two weeks. During the second week of November 2011, Yeater’s original attorneys, Lance Rogers and Matt Pare, resigned after Bieber’s management threatened them with legal action for filing what they called a false claim.¹⁰ The suit was then withdrawn from San Diego Superior Court without prejudice, which left open the technical possibility of refiling.¹¹

Yeater brought on a new legal team led by Chicago attorney Jeffrey Leving, with John Carlson in Los Angeles and Art Kallow in San Diego.¹² Leving blamed the withdrawal on a “media storm” and death threats against his client, saying she had been harassed in public and had changed her phone number.¹³

Around the same time, TMZ published text messages attributed to Yeater that cut against her account. In a message dated November 16, 2011, she allegedly wrote to a friend: “Pleeease ERASE ALL MESSAGES from my mom where she says Tristyn is Robbie’s son… Ill kick u when we get paid.” An earlier message from August 2011 reportedly asked the same friend to stress to someone named “Robbie” “how important it is for him to be in his son’s life.”⁷ Weitzman said the messages showed Yeater had “fabricated the story” and had consistently named a different man as the child’s father.¹⁴

In a December 2011 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Yeater insisted her claim was genuine and denied that a man named Robbie Powell was the father. Leving said that if the two sides could not agree on terms for controlled DNA testing, the suit would likely be refiled.³ It never was.

Yeater’s Other Legal Troubles

Reporting during the paternity controversy turned up a pattern of shifting accusations. Yeater’s ex-boyfriend, John Terranova, a 19-year-old from Las Vegas, told the New York Post she had first told him he was the father when she returned from California. He said it was “impossible” based on the timing and called the Bieber suit a “scam,” adding, “She just wants money.”¹⁵ A former apartment manager in Lakeside told reporters that before the Bieber accusation, Yeater had said the father was “one of two people in Ocean Beach.”¹⁶

Yeater also had a criminal case pending in Nevada. She had been arrested in Las Vegas on December 21, 2010, on charges of misdemeanor battery, destroying property, and making threatening phone calls, after she allegedly slapped Terranova and broke the car windows of his new girlfriend, Lacy Jensen, during an argument.¹⁷ She pleaded not guilty, and a bench trial was scheduled for December 12, 2011; the battery charge carried up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.¹⁸ The outcome of that trial does not appear in available reporting.

The Statutory Rape Angle

Yeater’s own account carried a legal problem for her. California’s age of consent is 18, and she was 19 while Bieber was 16 at the time of the alleged encounter. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith confirmed no crime report had been filed but said, “If it’s brought to our attention, of course we’ll look into it.”¹⁹ Under California law, unlawful sex with a minor by someone not more than three years older is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.²⁰ No criminal charges against Yeater on that basis were ever publicly reported.

Bieber’s spokesman said the team would “continue to consider all of our options to protect Justin,” and his lawyers repeatedly floated a defamation case against Yeater.²¹ None was reported as filed.

Aftermath

Bieber addressed the episode in his music. In April 2012, he told a London audience there was “a song about that girl — Mariah Yeater — that said she was gonna have my baby.”²² The track, “Maria,” appeared on the deluxe edition of his album Believe, released June 19, 2012. He compared it to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” saying, “It was something I wanted to get off my chest.”²³

He also mocked her on Twitter during an April 2012 Q&A, tweeting at Yeater, “Dear mariah yeeter… we have never met… so from the heart i just wanted to say…” and linking to a clip of the character Borat saying, “You will never get this.”²²

1
NBC San Diego. Justin Bieber Mariah Yeater Paternity Lawsuit San Diego
2
San Diego Union-Tribune. Bieber Hit With Paternity Suit From Lakeside Woman
3
Chicago Sun-Times. Exclusive Interview: Mariah Yeater Still Claims She Had Bieber’s Baby
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CBS News. Justin Bieber Sex Accuser Mariah Yeater Drops Paternity Suit
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ABC News. Justin Bieber Paternity Lawsuit Dropped
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CBC News. Justin Bieber Paternity Suit Dropped
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International Business Times. Mariah Yeater Text Message Plea: Proof She Lied About Justin Bieber
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The Hollywood Reporter. Justin Bieber Paternity Test Mariah Yeater
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Los Angeles Times. Justin Bieber Paternity Test Consequences
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NME. Justin Bieber Paternity Suit Update
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CBS News. Justin Bieber Paternity Suit Dropped
12
Today. Bieber Baby Drama May Not Be Over Yet
13
The Guardian. Justin Bieber Paternity Suit Withdrawn
14
BET. Justin Bieber’s Accuser Exposed in Leaked Text Messages
15
New York Post. Woman Who Claims She Had Bieber’s Baby First Told Ex He Was the Dad
16
Patch. Buzz Over Justin Bieber: Was He the Father of Baby Born in Lakeside
17
Review-Journal. Woman Who Says Bieber Fathered Child Faces Las Vegas Trial
18
NBC Connecticut. Woman Suing Bieber Is Heading to Court on Battery Charges
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CBS News. Justin Bieber Sex Accuser Mariah Yeater Could Land in Jail for Statutory Rape
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NBC San Diego. Justin Bieber Paternity Baby Mariah Yeater LAPD Investigation
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BBC News. Justin Bieber Paternity Suit Dropped
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Billboard. Justin Bieber Pens Song About ‘That Girl’ Mariah Yeater
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ABC News. Justin Bieber Says New Song About Paternity Accuser Is His Billie Jean