Video has been released of Justin Timberlake being arrested by officers who suspected him of drink driving.
The footage shows the pop star struggling to perform sobriety tests requiring him to talk in a straight line and stand on one leg during the incident in an affluent beach town in New York’s Hamptons in June 2024.
At one point he tells officers: “These are like really hard tests.”
Pic: Sag Harbor Police Department/AP
The footage includes Timberlake being stopped after Sag Harbor police said he ran a stop sign in the village centre, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol.
He tells officers he had drunk one martini and had been following friends home in the village, which is around 100 miles east of New York City.
Asked by an officer why he’s in town, Timberlake replies: “I’m on a world tour.”
The officer asks: “Doing what?”
“Hard to explain,” Timberlake says. After stammering, he adds: “World tour. I’m Justin Timberlake.”
The officer later responds: “You are Justin Timberlake? Do you have a license with you?”
Pic: Sag Harbor Police Department/AP
In the footage, he is asked by the officers to walk heel-to-toe in a straight line and lift one leg.
At times he appears flustered while listening to the instructions and apologises to the officers, telling them his heart is racing.
“I’m a little nervous,” he says.
In the back of the police car, he asks: “Why are you arresting me?”
At the police station, when Timberlake is informed he will be held overnight, he says: “I’m going to be here all night? You guys are wild, man.”
He asks the officer to keep the light on in the cell when they lock the door.
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Timberlake’s lawyers had sued to block the release of the video.
They argued it would “devastate” his privacy by revealing “intimate, highly personal, and sensitive details,” and claimed it would cause “severe and irreparable harm” to his reputation by subjecting him to “public ridicule and harassment”.
However, on Friday his lawyers acknowledged the video “does not constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” under the state’s public information law and agreed it could be released.
Timberlake pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of impaired driving in September 2024.
He agreed to give a public safety announcement about the perils of drunken driving as part of the plea deal and was sentenced to a $500 fine, 25 hours of community service and a 90-day suspension of his licence.
