Timberlake was arrested in Sag Harbor a little after midnight on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign in the village center, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol.
Police in court filings also said the 43-year-old Tennessee native’s eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and that he had “slowed speech,” was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on all sobriety tests.
Timberlake told the officer he had had one martini and was following some friends home, police said.
Sag Harbor is a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that is nestled amid the Hamptons, an area of seaside communities around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
Timberlake’s license suspension in New York likely affects his ability to drive in other states, a legal expert said this week.
Refusing a Breathalyzer test, as Timberlake did during his arrest, triggers an automatic suspension of one’s license under New York state law, which should then be enforced in other states, according to Kenneth Gober, a managing partner at the law firm Lee, Gober & Reyna in Austin, Texas.
“Most states participate in the interstate Driver’s License Compact, an agreement to share information about license suspensions and traffic violations,” he explained in an email. “If a license is suspended in one state it should be suspended in all states.”
In practice, though, it can take a long time for such changes to be reflected across state lines, Gober acknowledged. The pop star also has the resources to easily arrange for a driver and doesn’t need a car to drive to do his job, he added.
Timberlake has been on tour for months in support of his latest album. He returns to the New York City area in the coming weeks with concerts in Newark in New Jersey and in Brooklyn.
Among those outside the police station Friday to hear Timberlake speak was a local mother who said her 12-year-old son was killed by a drunk driver in 2018. Alisa McMorris, who now runs a foundation in her son’s memory, said she hoped Timberlake’s remarks would help bring more awareness to the dangers of driving under the influence.
“Justin has such a huge platform to the next generation. People listen to him,” she said after the singer had departed. “Five words I tell the kids when I go to the high schools is ‘How are we getting home?’ and he spoke about that. Make a plan. I don’t want another sister or a family to have to go through what we did.”
___
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
