In a virtual court appearance in Sag Harbor, NY, Justin Timberlake pleaded not guilty Friday to a revised misdemeanor charge of driving drunk in June in the waterfront village about 100 miles from New York City.
The Suffolk DA’s office told Deadline last week that a “ministerial error” in the arrest paperwork was fixed and that Timberlake would be arraigned under the revised complaint. “We stand ready to litigate the underlying facts of this case in court, rather than in the press,” a DA spokesperson said in a statement.
During the hearing, which was largely procedural, Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace also officially suspended Timberlake’s driving privileges in New York. The next court hearing is a lawyer conference scheduled for Friday, August 9.
Justin Timberlake appears by video during his arraignment in Sag Harbor courtroom, August 2, 2024. Pool photo by John Roca/Newsday.
John Roca/Newsday
During the hearing Timberlake’s attorney, Edward D. Burke Jr., withdrew his previous motion to dismiss the case. Irace said last week that he would review Burke’s dismissal motion but he ordered the arraignment to go forward.
Irace threatened Burke with a gag order, but did not yet impose one yet, for Burke’s comments outside court last week, telling the attorney, “It comes off as an attempt to poison the case before it even begins.” In his scolding of Burke, Irace said he may compel Timberlake to appear in person in future court hearings if the attorney continues to pop off to the press.
In those comments, Timberlake’s lawyer said flatly that his client “was not intoxicated” when Sag Harbor Village police officers pulled him over in June. Burke didn’t make the same claim in court on that occasion but attacked the case on procedural grounds, saying the arresting officer’s supervisor didn’t sign off on the criminal complaint.
Another potential line of defense emerged this week when TMZ reported that police allowed one of Timberlake’s drinking companions in another car to take the wheel of his rented BMW after his arrest despite appearances that she, too, had been drinking that night at The American Hotel. TMZ reported that Burke would argue that the officers’ faulty judgement in letting Timberlake’s companion drive off cast doubt on their treatment of Timberlake.
Timberlake has yet to return to the village court in Sag Harbor in person since his arrest, which occurred during a scheduled break in U.S. dates for his eight-month “Forget Tomorrow” world tour in support of a new album, Everything I Thought It Was. He was pulled over on June 18 after a night out with friends in this popular summer waterfront community and wealthy enclave whose residents include Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Billy Joel and ex-CNN news anchor Don Lemon.
The former ’N Sync vocalist turned solo star blew through a stop sign and weaved along a residential street, according to the criminal complaint filed by the officer who made the arrest. The officer’s writeup described Timberlake “in an intoxicated condition” with “bloodshot and glassy” eyes and “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” coming from him.
“I had one martini and I followed my friends home,” he told the officer, according to the police report. But he “performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the officer wrote.
Timberlake refused a breathalyzer, according to the police report, and spent the night in a local jail. His lawyer told reporters last week that Timberlake “cooperated with the police officers from the second he was ordered out of his car to the second he was discharged on June 18th” by the judge.
His remote arraignment today coincided with another scheduled break on the tour’s European leg. He is set to perform in Antwerp, Belgium this weekend.
Timberlake appeared to address his legal woes at a Chicago tour stop in late June, telling the audience, “It’s been a tough week, but you’re here, and I’m here and nothing can change this moment,” he said.
As a first-time offender facing a misdemeanor DWI charge, Timberlake could face up to a year behind bars and a fine up to $2,500, and a loss of driving privileges in New York. He has pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated and to assorted traffic violations.
The singer and actor whose screen credits include The Social Network and Trolls wasn’t the first celebrity to be caught driving under the influence in the Hamptons. In 2001, publicist Lizzie Grubman reversed her SUV into a crowd outside a Southampton nightclub, injuring several people, and then fled the scene. Grubman spent 38 days in jail.
