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Update: Maybe Bieber hasn't dodged his DNA test just yet. WGN Chicago is reporting that Mariah Yeater's suit has been withdrawn over "death threats," but that she has switched legal representation and still believes Bieber fathered her baby. Jeffery Leving, a Chicago-based paternity lawyer representing Yeater, said that the accuser's lawyers are still negotiating with Bieber's council to secure a DNA test. However, if Yeater were to pursue further legal action against Justin, she'd need to file another suit. You can watch Leving's full interview over at WGN, but the whole thing sounds like a shakedown, from the non-stop name-checking of lawyers in the Sherman Oaks area to that part where Leving promises to keep the DNA results "confidential," as if he's seeking an out-of-court settlement to make this whole ordeal finally go away.
And just like that, Justin Bieber has victoriously weathered the first major scandal of his young career. Earlier this month, a woman named Mariah Yeater claimed the teen sensation fathered her newborn after a post-concert bathroom rendezvous. She filed legal paperwork demanding that Bieber take a paternity test to prove that he was the baby's father, just like an episode of Maury Povich, even though the singer's lawyers immediately called Yeater's claims "malicious, defamatory, and demonstrably false." His lawyers were very right: Late last week, Yeater quietly dismissed her own lawsuit against Bieber.
TMZ reports that Yeater's legal team, Lance Rogers and Matt Pare, have ditched their client, even though they initially claimed to possess "credible evidence" that Bieb was the father. No explanation yet why Yeater decided to drop her lawsuit, but it probably has something to do with the fact that there's a 99.9% chance that she never even met Justin Bieber, let alone shared an intimate minute with him in a Staples Center stall. Or it might be because Bieber's lawyers threatened to file a countersuit against Yeater after a DNA test proved that the kid was not his son. (This really has been his "Billie Jean" moment.) Bieber himself was adamant that the charges were bogus. "I'd just like to say, basically, that none of those allegations are true, and I know that I'm gonna be a target, but I'm never going to be a victim," Justin told the Today show.
Just last week, despite threats against their client from Bieber's tween army, Yeater's lawyers were eagerly awaiting Bieber's return from his European tour so he could take the DNA test. But as news outlets dug into Yeater's past following her accusations, it appeared that the tale of how her baby was conceived was a work of fiction. Prior to claiming Bieber was the father, Yeater hurled similar "it's your baby" allegations at a likelier candidate, her own ex-boyfriend. Then came the rumors that Yeater was also a Craigslist call girl, and then her mug shot from that time she assaulted her ex, etc. Essentially, she was painted as the kind of person you'd expect to file a baseless, headline-grabbing paternity charge against a pop star.
At least Yeater got a nice Star magazine spread out of this whole mess. It's just too bad whatever she was paid by Star will probably go straight to Bieber's pockets after he sues her for slander.