Justin Timberlake has temporarily lost his driving privileges in New York after his June arrest.
The former NSYNC bandmember was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Sag Harbor, a wealthy village in the Hamptons in New York state in June for an alcohol-related offence.
The US popstar, 43, appeared in court virtually from Antwerp, Belgium and pleaded not guilty to a revised misdemeanour charge of driving drunk, as reported by People.
Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace has ruled that the singer’s driving privileges in the state of New York will be suspended. How long this suspension will last for is unconfirmed.
Following the hearing, Timberlake’s lawyer Edward Burke Jr. told reporters the suspension is ‘standard with every DUI’.
Burke also withdrew his motion from last week requesting the case be dismissed, while Irace also urged Burke to ‘be more mindful when giving comments’ after his statement to the press following the July 26 hearing.
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Irace added that his words could ‘come off as an attempt to poison the case before it even begins,’ the publication reports, and that if they continued a gag order would be implemented, and Timberlake would have to return from his Forget Tomorrow World Tour and appear in court in person.
The next hearing will take place on August 9, with a court date tentatively set for September 13.
During the last hearing on July 26, Burke claimed the Mirrors creator was ‘not intoxicated’ when he was arrested, adding, as per WABC: ‘I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated. And we are very confident that charge – that criminal charge – will be dismissed.’
Burke told People after the July hearing: ‘The most important fact to know about this case is that Justin was not intoxicated and should not have been arrested for DWI.’
He added: ‘The police made a number of very significant errors in this case. 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.’
He also said that Timberlake ‘respects’ officers, the judicial process, and has cooperated with police, but that they ‘made an error’ when arresting him.
‘We are confident that this charge will be dismissed,’ Burke added.
It is alleged by police he failed to pause at a stop sign and stay in the right lane.
This comes after Timberlake appeared to poke fun at the arrest on stage in front of thousands of people.
In a social media video that went viral, Justin asked the crowd: ‘Is there anyone here that is driving, no I’m just kidding.’
Sag Harbor Village Police Department said Justin was pulled over on June 18 at 12.37am local time following officers seeing him ‘failing to stop at a duly posted stop sign and failing to maintain his lane of travel’ while driving a BMW.
Court documents claim that an officer described his eyes as ‘bloodshot and glassy’ and said 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 standardised field sobriety tests,’ the court papers added.
The Social Network actor was held overnight until he was arraigned at Sag Harbor Village Justice Court and released.
On his arrest, the officer was apparently ‘too young’ to recognise Timberlake.
According to Page Six, he ‘didn’t recognise’ the Cry Me A River hitmaker ‘or his name’.
A source told the outlet: ‘Justin said under his breath, “This is going to ruin the tour.” The cop replied, “What tour?” Justin said, “The world tour”.’
Timberlake’s tour continues in Birmingham on August 7, Birmingham on August 11, and London on August 12.
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