Following reports of Justin Timberlake’s DWI charge after being stopped by police in the Hamptons town of Sag Harbor, his lawyer has since asserted that he was falsely identified as intoxicated, citing errors in documents submitted by officers.
After Timberlake’s hearing on Friday, his defense attorney, Edward Burke, said police made “very significant errors” and he expects the charges to be dismissed, maintaining that the singer and actor did not drive while intoxicated. Timberlake did not attend the hearing as his appearance was waived in advance.
“He was not intoxicated,” Burke told reporters outside of court. “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated.”
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case,” he continued. “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.”
Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace ordered Timberlake to be re-arraigned August 2 with the corrected paperwork.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, described the paperwork issue as a “ministerial error” and said an amended charging document was filed July 2.
Timberlake, 43, was charged with the misdemeanor on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign out of his lane in Sag Harbor, a village located in East Hampton. The former NSYNC member was driving a 2025 BMW around 12:30 a.m. when an officer stopped him and determined he was under the influence, 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 read.
At the time, Timberlake told police that he had one martini and was following some friends home, as stated in the documents. After being arrested and taken to a police station in the nearby village of East Hampton, he reportedly refused a breath test.
“The facts and circumstance of the case have not been changed or amended,” spokesperson Emily O’Neil told NBC News in an email. “We stand ready to litigate the underlying facts of this case in court, rather than in the press.”
