Singer Justin Timberlake charged with drunk driving in the Hamptons

SAG HARBOR, N.Y. (AP) — Pop star Justin Timberlake was charged with drunken driving in a village in the Hamptons, New York, early Tuesday morning after police said he missed a stop sign and left his lane at the posh seaside summer home.

The boy band singer turned solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW in Sag Harbor around 12:30 a.m. when a police officer stopped him and found him to be intoxicated, a court document states.

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, ​​his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, he could not divide his attention, his speech was slowed, he was unsteady on his feet, and he performed poorly on all standardized sobriety tests,” court documents say.

Timberlake, 43, told the officer he had been drinking a martini and was following some friends home, the documents say. After he was arrested and taken to a police station in nearby East Hampton, he refused a breathalyzer test, according to court documents, which listed his occupation as “professional” and described him as “self-employed.”

The 10-time Grammy winner was released without bail Tuesday morning following his arraignment in Sag Harbor. He was charged with drunken driving and his next court date is set for July 26, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.

Timberlake’s attorney and representatives did not respond to multiple email and phone requests for comment.

But the arrest attracted a steady stream of curious onlookers to the village’s picturesque main street, with many taking photos in front of the brick local government building where the star had been arraigned hours earlier.

Even music legend Billy Joel, a Sag Harbor regular, watched the scene outside the American Hotel, a popular hotel and restaurant next to the courthouse where Timberlake had been seen before his arrest.

“Judge not, lest you be judged,” the “Piano Man” singer told WPIX, declining to comment on Timberlake or his arrest.

The young Timberlake began performing as a Disney Mouseketeer, where he also graced his future girlfriend Britney Spears (he is now married to actress Jessica Biel). He rose to fame in the huge boy band NSYNC, launched a solo career in 2002, and was one of the most influential figures in pop in the early 2000s.

Fluent in pop and R&B styles, he is known for Grammy-winning hits such as “Cry Me A River,” “SexyBack,” “What Goes Around…Comes Around,” and “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” He has performed at the Super Bowl halftime shows on several occasions, including the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004, when he ripped off an article of clothing worn by Janet Jackson, revealing her bare nipple.

The incident resulted in Jackson being banned from the Grammy broadcast a week later. In a 2022 documentary, she said that what happened was an accident and that she and Timberlake remained good friends.

Timberlake also made a name for himself as an actor, earning recognition in films such as “The Social Network” and “Friends with Benefits” and winning four Primetime Emmy Awards.

Last year, Timberlake made headlines when Spears released her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” which included several chapters devoted to their relationship, including deeply personal details about a pregnancy, an abortion and a painful breakup. In March, he released his first new album in six years, the nostalgic “Everything I Thought It Was,” a return to his familiar future-funk sound.

Timberlake has two performances in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, followed by a performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 25 and 26.

Sag Harbor, a former whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick, is located in the heart of the Hamptons, about 100 miles east of New York City. The Hamptons have long been a hotspot for the rich and famous, and several stars and other celebrities have had run-ins with the law there.

Sag Harbor is located on a bay and has developed a more down-to-earth, “untypical” reputation over the years than its seaside neighbors – a place where people met not at a country club but at a local pub called the Corner Bar. There is still a general store and a major social hub is the quaint, cozy American Hotel, built in the mid-19th century.

The village has long had its share of prominent homeowners and residents, including singer-songwriter Joel, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck, feminist writer Betty Friedan, and Pulitzer Prize winners Colson Whitehead and Lanford Wilson. Whitehead’s novel “Sag Harbor” is set there, specifically in a beachfront enclave where generations of black families have spent their summers.

In recent decades, Sag Harbor has increasingly become a destination for celebrities, wannabe stars and even cruise ships. Manhattan-style restaurants and expensive boutiques have proliferated. Homes fetch seven or eight figures, and the village’s development has led to complaints from some longtime residents about traffic, crowds and a changing character.

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Associated Press journalists Michael Balsamo, Karen Matthews and Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.