When the police pulled Justin Timberlake over early Tuesday in Sag Harbor New York, the singer refused to take a breathalyzer test and the on-duty cops had no idea whom they were going to arrest. Giving details of the high-profile drunk driving arrest, New York Post reported that the singer was at the America Hotel with a bunch of friends and cops were stationed outside where he was having dinner.“Let him go, let him go,” his friends were telling the police.
The cop who pulled Timberlake over was so young that he didn’t even recognize the 10-time Grammy winner.
The 43-year-old pop singer was taken into custody and was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated and two other traffic violations: not stopping at the stop sign and failure to stay in a proper lane of travel, the report said.
Timberlake claimed to have one martini before he was stopped by the cops. The criminal complaint report, however, said his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. “His 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, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,’’ the report said.
In recent years, Timberlake’s behavior toward women in the early 2000s has also come under sharper scrutiny.
The public and media have reexamined his treatment of singer and actor Britney Spears, whom he dated in the early 2000s, and whom he referenced in songs like “Cry Me a River.” He continued mocking her well after they broke up, making insinuations about her virginity during performances on Saturday Night Live and dismissive comments about her music.