Record Exec Pleads Not Guilty To Tween Chaos At Mall

The fallout continues from tween pop star Justin Bieber's chaotic Friday appearance at a Long Island mall. Record executive James Roppo was charged with "endangering the welfare of a child, obstruction of governmental administration, reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance"—Newsday reports, "Nassau police said James A. Roppo's failure to send out a Twitter message to disperse the hordes resulted in an officer and others receiving minor injuries."

Roppo has pleaded not guilty, with his lawyer saying, "We feel Mr. Roppo is here being singled out. He had nothing to do with the injuries"—there were five from the stampede of around 3,000 Bieber-mad girls and their parents—"that occurred. Mr. Roppo has absolute zero liability," and said that the police and Roosevelt Field Mall were "unprepared and had a complete lack of control at yesterday's event and it is incomprehensible that they will not take responsibility." However, the Nassau County police tell Newsday they didn't even know about the event.

A 12-year-old who had been waiting for Bieber, a 15-year-old Canadian whose YouTube videos sparked interest from Usher's and Justin Timberlake's record labels (Usher won out), tells WCBS 2 that the chaos started when the event was suddenly cancelled, "Everyone started freaking out and pushing together, and that's when it got really scary." And one mother who was injured when she was pushed to the ground, "To get hurt over it, that was ridiculous. I touch my face - there is blood all over my face. My girls are crying, my daughter's hysterical crying." And other attendees say that cops Tasered one girl!

Bieber claims that by the time he arrived, cops wouldn't even let him inside the mall. He Tweeted after the incident, "They wouldnt let me in! Gotta make this right 4 the fans."