Justin Timberlake’s lawyer said on Friday that the singer was not intoxicated when he was arrested for a traffic violation last month, as he seeks to have the DUI charge against him dismissed in the Hamptons, New York, citing errors in documents filed by the police.
However, Judge Carl Irace ordered that Timberlake be reprocessed on August 2 with corrected documentation.
He also agreed that the former NSYNC member, who is currently on tour in Europe, may appear virtually for the proceedings. Timberlake did not attend Friday’s hearing as his appearance was canceled in advance.
Timberlake’s attorney, Edward Burke, stated after the hearing that the police made “very significant errors” and he expects the charges to be dismissed. He also insisted that Timberlake was not driving under the influence.
“He was not intoxicated,” Burke told reporters outside the courthouse. “I will say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated.”
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, led by Ray Tierney, which is handling the case, described the paperwork issue as a “ministerial error” and an amended indictment document was submitted on July 2.
“The facts and circumstances of the case have not been changed or amended,” spokesperson Emily O’Neil said in an email.
Burke, in a subsequent statement, suggested that there were other issues with the arrest documents, but did not provide further details.
“The police made a series of very significant mistakes in this case,” he said. “Today in court, they heard the district attorney trying to correct one of those mistakes. But that is just one and there are many others. Sometimes the police make mistakes and this is just one of those cases.”
Timberlake respects law enforcement and the judicial process and cooperated with the officers and treated them with respect during his arrest last month, Burke added.
The Tierney office declined to respond to Burke’s comments.
“We are ready to litigate the facts of this case in the courts, rather than in the press,” O’Neil said.
Timberlake was charged with a misdemeanor on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign and swerved out of his lane in Sag Harbor, an old whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick,” located in the middle of the Hamptons, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) 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 court documents.
“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong smell of alcohol emanated from his breath, he could not focus his attention, he was slow to speak, unsteady on his feet, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the court documents state.
Timberlake, 43, told the officer at the time that he had consumed a martini and was following some friends home, according to the documents. After being arrested and taken to a nearby East Hampton police station, he refused a breathalyzer test.
The ten-time Grammy winner began his career as a young Disney actor and shot to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC, later embarking on a successful solo career in the early 2000s.
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Associated Press journalist Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.
