The cop who arrested Justin Timberlake for DWI in the Hamptons was so young that he didn’t recognize the superstar, according to a report.
The 10-time Grammy winner, 43, was arrested Tuesday at 12:17 a.m. in the wealthy Hamptons enclave of Sag Harbor, Long Island, known as a popular destination for celebrities in the summer months. The pop star claimed to have consumed just “one martini,” according to a complaint obtained by the New York Post.
Timberlake, who rose to fame as a Disney Mouseketeer before becoming one of the biggest pop stars of the 1990s and 2000s, appeared in a Long Island court on Tuesday and was released without bail, according to TMZ. He is due back in court on July 26. A booking photo from his arrest has not been released, but photos showed Timberlake in handcuffs at a local police station.
Police told the outlet Timberlake was at the American Hotel partying and blew through a stop sign when he left. Cops started to follow him, and pulled him over after he started swerving. The singer told police that he was following his friends home.
Timberlake “performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests” and repeatedly refused to take a breathalyzer, the complaint says.
Officers observed Timberlake with glassy eyes and smelled alcohol on his breath. “He was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot,” the complaint said.
Timberlake’s friends were near the arrest and pleaded with cops to let him loose, but officers refused, according to TMZ.
The New York Post reported that the unnamed arresting officer “was so young that he didn’t even know” who Timberlake was.
His arrest comes amid the “SexyBack” singer’s The Forget Tomorrow World Tour, with two concerts scheduled to take place at the United Center in Chicago on June 21 and 22. Timberlake is then due to return to New York for two shows at Madison Square Garden. He made headlines earlier this week after stopping a show to help a fan in need of medical assistance.
“House lights up, thank you! Sorry everybody one second... we need some assistance right here about five rows back,” he said in video footage of the incident.
“OK, we’re OK,” he went on to say, when the fan seemingly signaled back to him.
Timberlake recently released his new album Everything I Thought I Was, his first record in six years. It was critically panned, with a two-star review in The Independent calling it “about as sexy as a soiled mattress.”
Timberlake’s former status as a global pop icon has waned in recent years, most notably after the release of Britney Spears’s memoir, The Woman in Me, which divulged a number of details about their relationship and subsequent split.
The couple first met as child stars on the Disney Channel, before Spears shot to fame with hits such as “Hit Me Baby (One More Time)” and “Oops!... I Did It Again.”
Timberlake, meanwhile, joined the popular boyband NYSNC and later embarked on a successful solo career. He is also an actor, winning acclaim for performances in blockbuster films such as The Social Network and rom-com Friends With Benefits.
In February, Timberlake raised eyebrows when he declared during a live performance that he wanted to apologize to “absolutely f***ing nobody” just days after Spears expressed regret for some of the revelations made in Spears’s book.
After the release of Timberlake’s single “Selfish” in March, fans of Spears began streaming her 2011 song with the same title in response, resulting in it topping Timberlake’s sales during its first full week.
Timberlake has been married to Hollywood actor Jessica Biel, with whom he shares two children, since 2012.
The Independent has contacted a representative for Timberlake, a spokesperson for the police department and Sag Harbor Justice Court for comment.
