Police bodycam footage showing Justin Timberlake’s 2024 drink-driving arrest in New York has been released.
The pop star had previously sued the Village of Sag Harbor to prevent the release of the video, but ultimately reached a settlement allowing for its release on Friday.
Timberlake was arrested in June 2024 on a driving while intoxicated charge after police pulled him over for driving through a stop sign and veering onto the wrong side of the road. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
The partially redacted footage shows Timberlake stumbling during police sobriety tests and trying to explain that he’s on a world tour.
At the time of his arrest, the 45-year-old singer and former NSYNC frontman was driving in Sag Harbor, an affluent village in the Hamptons and popular summer destination for celebrities on New York’s Long Island.
More than eight hours of footage was released, showing video from the traffic stop as well as inside the police station following Timberlake’s arrest.
Footage shows an officer speaking to Timberlake through the driver’s side window, saying he saw the star veering his car into the left side of the road and not stopping at stop signs.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Timberlake responds. When asked if the vehicle he’s driving, a grey BMW, is his own car, Timberlake answers that it’s a rental he’s using for a few days. The officer then asks if he is visiting and Timberlake says he is on tour.
“A what?” the officer asks.
“A world tour,” Timberlake answers.
“Doing what?” the officer asks.
“Um, it’s hard to explain. Um, um, uh, a world tour. I’m Justin Timberlake,” the star says.
“What’s your name?” the officer asks. Timberlake repeats his name and the officer asks to see his licence.
In the charging document, officers said Timberlake’s eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and a “strong odour of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath” when they pulled him over.
The footage also shows Timberlake performing a series of sobriety tests, including walking in a straight line and following an officer’s hand movement with his eyes.
He declines to take a breathalyser test and stumbles a few times when asked to walk toe to heel with his left foot first. He tells officers he’s a “little nervous”.
“By the way, these are, like, these are like really hard tests,” Timberlake says at one point.
The officers eventually handcuff Timberlake and place him in the back of the police car, the video shows. A person with Timberlake walks up to the officers and asks what’s going on, at one point pleading with them not to arrest him.
In their lawsuit against the village, Timberlake’s lawyers had argued that the footage showed him “in an acutely vulnerable state” and “would cause severe and irreparable harm” to his reputation, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
But ultimately the judge ruled that releasing the footage is not an invasion of privacy and both parties agreed to its release with redactions, CBS News reported.
After originally being charged with driving while intoxicated, Timberlake pleaded guilty in 2024 to a less serious, non-criminal traffic offence of driving while impaired.
Timberlake was ordered to pay a $500 (£380) fine with a $260 (£200) surcharge, do 25 hours of community service and make a public safety announcement outside court.
“Even if you’ve had one drink don’t get behind the wheel of a car,” the singer said at the time.
“This is a mistake I have made, but I hope whoever is watching and listening right now can learn from this. I know I certainly have.”
By BBC News
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
