Justin Timberlake pleads not guilty in DWI case
By Sarah Boxer and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN
(CNN) — Justin Timberlake has pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated stemming from an arrest earlier this summer in New York.
Timberlake, who attended the hearing in Sag Harbor, New York virtually, spoke twice to answer “yes” to Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace.
The hearing was largely procedural. The judge at one point admonished Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke, for previous comments made outside of court to the media. The judge urged counsel to be more cautious.
The singer was arrested in June after police say he was observed driving a 2025 BMW “in an intoxicated condition.”
He allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign and also failed to maintain in his lane of travel, according to a statement from Sag Harbor Police. He was described by an officer as “unable to divide attention.” The officer added that Timberlake “had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests.”
Timberlake told police he “had one martini and I followed my friends home,” according to court records.
At a hearing in late July, Timberlake’s attorney disputed that the performer was intoxicated, arguing he should not have been arrested.
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case,” Burke said at the time.
On Friday, Burke reiterated that Timberlake was not intoxicated at the time of his arrest. The singer’s Tennessee drivers license was suspended in the state of New York, which Burke said is standard for DWI arrests.
Timberlake is currently on tour in Europe for his most recent album, “Everything I Thought It Was.”
Friday’s appearance was a rescheduled arraignment after Timberlake’s attorney argued in a previous hearing there were paperwork errors.
There is another conference hearing in the case on August 9, though Timberlake is not required to attend at that time.
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