Justin Bieber's new friend Chantel Jeffries broke her silence for the first time since being photographed in the singer's rented Lamborghini the night of his arrest. On Jan. 23, Bieber was arrested in Miami Beach for driving under the influence, drag racing, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license.
Immediately after the arrest, stories ran claiming Jeffries had been in trouble with the law on several occasions. According to the Daily Mail, the 21-year-old model had been arrested five times, the most recent being in February 2011 for misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. Allegedly Jeffries had tried to stab someone but the charges were later dropped.
Jeffries released a statement to E! News hoping to set the record straight.
"I have been overwhelmed by the negative attention I have recently received in the media," she told E! in a statement. "My family and I are particularly upset about false accusations which have been published concerning my criminal history."
"For the record, I have not been arrested five times as has been stated in the media, nor am I guilty of physically assaulting anyone, in any way shape or form," she continued. "I am a full-time student who had enjoyed a normal lifestyle, free from public scrutiny and criticism, until now. What has happened to me is wrong. I want people in general, and the media in particular, to consider the impact their disparaging comments have on the individual, especially when their comments are inaccurate."
According to E! the model was scheduled to do an interview on NBC's "Today" but the interview was canceled. When people questioned her reasoning for wanting to talk to the media, Jeffries tweeted that she was going to appear on the show to "talk not about Justin, about false allegations against me only."
There were also reports that she was trying to earn $20,000 from doing an interview but she denied the allegations on Twitter writing that she would never "sell my story."
