Justin Timberlake’s lawyer says singer wasn’t intoxicated
Justin Timberlake arrives at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Image: Colin Young-Wolff/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Justin Timberlake’s lawyer said Friday, July 26 that the pop singer wasn’t intoxicated during a traffic stop last month, as he seeks to get his drunken driving charge in New York’s Hamptons dismissed, citing errors in documents submitted by police.
But Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace ordered Timberlake to be re-arraigned on Aug. 2 with the corrected paperwork.
He also agreed the former NSYNC member, who is currently on tour in Europe, could appear virtually for the proceeding. Timberlake didn’t attend Friday’s hearing as his appearance was waived in advance.
Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke, said after the hearing that police made “very significant errors” and expects the charge to be dismissed. He also maintained that Timberlake didn’t drive drunk.
“He was not intoxicated,” Burke told reporters outside court. “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, described the paperwork issue as a “ministerial error” and that an amended charging document was filed on July 2.
“The facts and circumstance of the case have not been changed or amended,” spokesperson Emily O’Neil said in an email.
Burke, in a follow-up statement, suggested there were other problems with the arrest documents but didn’t elaborate.
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case,” he said. “In court today, you heard the district attorney try to fix one of those errors. But that’s just one and there are many others. Sometimes the police make mistakes and this is just one of those instances.”
Timberlake respects law enforcement and the judicial process cooperated with officers and treated them with respect throughout his arrest last month, Burke added.
Tierney’s office declined to respond to Burke’s comments.
This handout image released by the Sag Harbor Police Department on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, shows the booking photo of US singer-songwriter and actor Justin Timberlake. (Photo by SAG HARBOR POLICE DEPARTMENT / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)
“We stand ready to litigate the underlying facts of this case in court, rather than in the press,” O’Neil said.
Timberlake was charged with the misdemeanor on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane in Sag Harbor, a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that’s nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW around 12:30 a.m. when an officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated, according to a court document.
“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the court papers said.
Timberlake, 43, told the officer at the time that he had one martini and was following some friends home, according to the documents. After being arrested and taken to a police station in nearby East Hampton, he refused a breath test.
The 10-time Grammy winner began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC, and embarked on a solo recording career in the early 2000s.
