Toronto limousine driver sues Justin Bieber

The alleged assault took place Dec. 30, 2013, after Mohar said he received a notification from the travel app Uber and picked up a group of six men outside Time Nightclub in Toronto’s entertainment district. While en route to a nearby hotel, Mohar claims a man he would later discover was Bieber punched him up to six times in the head because he refused to turn the music louder.

“I was like, ‘What’s going on, is this guy out of his mind?’,” Mohar told the Star.

The allegations in this story come from the lawsuit’s statement of claim as well as an interview with Mohar. The allegations have not been proven in court.

Bieber, 21, was charged by Toronto police with assault weeks after the incident. But the criminal charges were later withdrawn. The prosecutor on the case concluded there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. After reviewing surveillance video, a 911 call and speaking with witnesses “who were willing to speak,” the prosecutor told court this September he could not establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, the identity of the person who came into contact with the driver.

The statement of claim alleges the five other men in the SUV that night entered into a “conspiracy” to protect Bieber from answering to his “criminal conduct” by not co-operating with police.

Reached Friday, Bieber’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, called the lawsuit against his client “totally without merit.” In an emailed statement he said: “During the course of the incident, while speaking with the 911 operator, the limousine driver had, in fact, identified his alleged assailant, who was still present, as black. After a careful assessment of the evidence, the Crown attorney withdrew the charge.”

No statement of defence has yet been filed.

Mohar told the Star he was “really shocked” when he spoke to the 911 operator and wasn’t thinking clearly. The majority of the men in his vehicle were black, he said, adding he told the police officers who responded soon after that two of the men were white.

According to the statement of claim, the Uber notification came from Bieber’s tour manager, Josh Williams. When Mohar arrived at the club around 2:15 a.m., he was told to drive the group to Yorkville’s Hazelton Hotel and was given a CD by a bodyguard to play during the trip.

After departing from the club, the young man sitting directly behind Mohar told him “loudly and aggressively” to “max out the volume,” the documents say. Mohar then turned the volume up somewhat and the man allegedly said: “I told you to max out the volume.” This man, the lawsuit alleges, was Stratford, Ont., native Justin Bieber.

The SUV, Mohar claims, smelled like marijuana and alcohol (so much so he had to spray it with air freshener for two days afterwards). The music on the CD had a heavy bass and even though the windows were up, he said he felt it could be heard from outside. He was worried about damaging the stereo system and getting a headache, he said.

“Suddenly, and without any warning,” Bieber allegedly came from the SUV’s back seats, wedging himself between the two front seats, and turned the volume all the way up on his own.

“Please don’t do that,” Mohar claims he said. Then, without any more words exchanged, he said Bieber punched him on the right cheek with a closed fist.

“It was very hard,” Mohar said of the punch. He said he was actually scared he might get into an accident or that the incident could escalate, specifically that he could be attacked with a weapon or by all the men in the SUV who he says were doing nothing to stop the alleged attack.

As he pulled his SUV over to the side of the road on University Ave., Mohar alleged Bieber punched him another four or five times in the back of the head.

He said he got out of the vehicle, started walking away and called 911. While on the phone with the dispatcher he said Bieber followed him, getting inches from his face, and said: “What’s your problem?”

A bodyguard, who had been following in another SUV, then got between the two men, someone took the CD out of Mohar’s SUV and the entire group fled, the documents say.

When describing the incident to the responding police officers, Mohar said he told them the man who assaulted him “looked like a Justin Bieber kind of guy.” The police later confirmed to him that Bieber was at the club that night, the documents say.

While Mohar was at the police station giving his statement, Bieber’s tour manager, Williams, phoned him on his cellphone (something he was able to do because the Uber fare was still open). The court documents say Mohar passed the phone to investigators and soon after Williams came into the station to give a statement, which included an admission Bieber was one of the occupants in the vehicle. After watching a YouTube video that purported to show Bieber at the club that night, Mohar would days later reiterate his belief to police that Bieber is the one who assaulted him, the documents say.

Months later, the prosecutor in the criminal case told Mohar that he would likely have to drop the charges against Bieber because it was Bieber’s word against his, the documents say. They add that Mohar was told Williams, the tour manager, would not return phone calls and the five other passengers in the car would not co-operate with police and could not be forced to come to court to testify because they were American citizens. As well, that the voice recording of Mohar’s 911 call has him describing the passengers as black. (The prosecutor declined an interview request through a Ministry spokesperson.)

Mohar, a father of two young girls, said he’s disappointed no justice was served in the criminal courts and that is why he is now pursuing a lawsuit.

“We live in a civilized society where we respect each other,” he said. He added that he has worked in the service industry for years, in restaurants in Pakistan before coming to Canada in 2002, then at a gas station and as a pizza deliveryman and cab driver. He opened a small used car business and then saved for a year-and-a-half to buy his SUV limousine to become a chauffeur. He said he has always been treated well by clients.

“The case is about power, money and abuse by Bieber,” said Mohar’s lawyer, Clayton Ruby.

Mohar said that he was shaken after the alleged assault and went to the hospital two times because he believed he might be having a heart attack. “Too much stress,” he said of what he believes caused his symptoms. He has since stopped using Uber and only drives regular clients he knows.

Mohar did not want to fully identify himself in a photo in the Star because he’s concerned of reprisals from the legions of Bieber fans worldwide.

Bieber has faced a series of legal troubles in Canada and the U.S. in recent years, including charges of careless driving and vandalism for pelting eggs at a neighbour’s house.

He is facing charges of dangerous driving and assault in Stratford. That case is back in court May 25.

“I turned a lot of people off over the past few years, but I know I can still turn out good music and turn everything all around,” Bieber recently said during a roast of him on Comedy Central.

“I’ve lost some of my best qualities. For that, I am sorry.”