Justin Timberlake entered a guilty plea Friday in connection to his DWI case.
Timberlake arrived in the morning at the Sag Harbor Village Justice Courthouse in Long Island, New York, alongside his attorney Edward Burke Jr.
As part of a deal struck with the court, Timberlake pleaded guilty to a noncriminal traffic violation of driving while impaired.
Finding the agreement lacking, Judge Carl Irace, who suspended Timberlake’s license in a hearing last month, asked Timberlake if he would be willing to volunteer at a nonprofit of his choosing.
“I’d be willing to,” Timberlake responded, agreeing to 25 to 40 hours of community service. He also agreed to pay a fine.
Following the hearing, Timberlake spoke outside the courthouse and told reporters, that he tries to hold himself “to a very high standard.”
“This was not that. I found myself in a position where I could have made a different decision,” he said, calling it “a mistake that I made.”
His attorney said that the singer had one drink in a two-hour span at the American Hotel.
“Contrary to what was reported he wasn’t drinking other people’s drinks or warned in advance not to drive,” he said. “He wasn’t rude, he wasn’t obnoxious, he wasn’t belligerent. In fact, he was polite, he was cooperative, he was respectful during this entire encounter with law enforcement as they were to him.”
The attorney said the plea to a reduced charge is consistent with the facts of the case.
Timberlake’s court hearing stems from the Grammy winner’s arrest on June 18 on suspicion of intoxicated driving in the affluent Hamptons area of Long Island.
The night of Timberlake’s arrest, he had been enjoying an evening with friends at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, before he got behind the wheel of a gray Florida-registered BMW. Timberlake was pulled over after he ran a stop sign and was arrested after failing his field sobriety test, according to a Sag Harbor Village police report.
Timberlake claimed he had “one martini” before he got behind the wheel and was following his friends home. But the officer who arrested Timberlake that night stated in his report that Timberlake’s “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.”
NBC News has reached out to Timberlake and his attorney for comment.
When Timberlake initially pleaded not guilty, his lawyer released a statement saying: “I look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Timberlake on these allegations. I will have a lot to say at the appropriate time but am currently awaiting full discovery from the District Attorney’s office.”
