Singer Justin Timberlake was arrested early Tuesday and is accused of driving while intoxicated on New York’s Long Island, after police said he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane in the posh seaside summer retreat.
The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW in Sag Harbor 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 odour 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 he’d 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, said the court papers, which listed his occupation as “professional” and said he’s “self-employed.”
Timberlake charged, mugshot released
The 10-time Grammy winner was released without bond later Tuesday morning after being arraigned in Sag Harbor. He was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office told CBC News.
His next court date is scheduled for July 26 the Sag Harbor Police Department shared with CBC, also releasing a mug shot of the singer.
Timberlake’s lawyer and representatives did not immediately return requests for comment from The Associated Press.
A young Timberlake was a Disney Mouseketeer, where his castmates included future girlfriend Britney Spears. He rose to fame in the popular boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in 2002.
Fluent in the inflections of pop and R&B, he’s known for such Grammy-winning hits as Cry Me A River, SexyBack, What Goes Around…Comes Around and Can’t Stop The Feeling! He has performed at Super Bowl halftime shows multiple times, including the infamous 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” moment when he ripped off a piece of fellow singer Janet Jackson’s clothing and revealed her bare nipple.
The episode led to Jackson’s exclusion from the Grammy telecast a week later. She said in a 2022 documentary that what happened was an accident and that she and Timberlake remained good friends.
Timberlake also built an acting career, winning acclaim for his performances in movies including The Social Network and Friends With Benefits and taking home four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Last year, Timberlake was in the headlines when Spears released her memoir, The Woman in Me. Several chapters are devoted to their relationship, including deeply personal details about a pregnancy, abortion and painful breakup. In March, he released his first new album in six years, the nostalgic Everything I Thought It Was, a return to his familiar future funk sound.
Timberlake has two upcoming shows in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, then is scheduled for New York’s Madison Square Garden next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sag Harbor, once a whaling village, is mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick. It’s nestled amid the Hamptons, around 160 kilometres east of New York City. The Hamptons have long been a hot spot for the rich and famous, and various stars and otherwise prominent people have had brushes with the law there.
