Justin Timberlake Was ‘Not Intoxicated’ Despite DUI Arrest, Attorney Argues

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC by 2.0

Justin Timberlake’s arraignment takes place next week on a misdemeanor drunk driving charge, but his attorney argues he was ‘not intoxicated.’After he was arrested back in June for driving while intoxicated in a waterfront village outside of New York City, pop star Justin Timberlake will appear virtually for a hearing next week while he is on tour in Europe, a judge ruled on Friday, July 26.

Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace has also agreed to review a motion by Timberlake’s attorney, Edward D. Burke Jr., to dismiss the case outright based on what Burke calls a “procedurally defective” criminal complaint filed by the Sag Harbor Village police officer who arrested Timberlake. According to Burke, the local police department failed to have a supervising officer sign off on the criminal complained detailing the “young, part-time” officer’s interactions with Timberlake.

“The most important thing we have to say today is obviously that Justin should not have been arrested for driving while intoxicated,” Burke told reporters outside the court following the hearing. “The police made a number of very significant errors in this case, and you heard the District Attorney try to fix one of those errors just this morning upstairs in court.”

Burke added that Timberlake “cooperated with the police offers from the second he was ordered out of his car to the second he was discharged on June 18,” by the same judge. “But the facts remain: he was not intoxicated. I’ll say it again: Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated and we’re confident that charge — that criminal charge — will be dismissed.”Irace says the arraignment will still go forward based on a revised criminal complaint filed earlier this month by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. Meanwhile, prosecutor Ashley Cangro says the paperwork issue Burke has raised has no bearing “on the facts of the case.”

A spokesperson for the DA’s office told Deadline that a “ministerial error” discovered by prosecutors in the initial criminal complaint following Timberlake’s arrest was corrected. Still, they emphasize that “the facts and circumstance of the case have not been changed or amended.”

When Timberlake was arrested in the early hours of June 18 after a night out with friends, the arresting officer wrote that Timberlake was “in an intoxicated condition” and that his eyes were “bloodshot and glassy,” while he emitted “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”

Timberlake told the officer, “I had one martini, and I followed my friends home.” But the star “performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” and then verbally refused a breathalyzer test. Timberlake was arrested and spent the rest of the night in local lockup, before being released later that morning.

A first-time offender facing a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge, Timberlake could face up to a year behind bars and a fine up to $2,500, as well as a loss of driving privileges in New York State. He has pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated and assorted traffic violations.