Justin Timberlake is taking legal action to prevent the release of the police body camera footage from his June 2024 DWI arrest, which could potentially damage his personal and professional reputation.
The 45-year-old singer was arrested on a DWI charge after leaving the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, N.Y., on June 18, 2024. He was initially charged with one count of driving while intoxicated and two citations, one for running a stop sign and one for failure to keep in the lane. However, his lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., maintained that Timberlake was "not intoxicated" when he was arrested.
In September 2024, Timberlake reached a plea deal, where he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Now, he has filed a petition in Suffolk County Supreme Court, alleging that releasing the police body camera footage of his arrest would invade his privacy.
The petition states that "public dissemination of this footage would cause severe and irreparable harm to [Timberlake's] personal and professional reputation, subject [Timberlake] to public ridicule and harassment, and serve no legitimate public interest."
Timberlake's attorneys, Edward Burke Jr. and Michael J. Del Piano, claim that public distribution of the video would expose intimate, highly personal, and sensitive details within Timberlake's car, as well as "expose highly personal details unrelated to public oversight of governmental operations."
The petition comes after the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, Department Chief Rober Drake, and the Village of Sag Harbor received a request for the release of the footage under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
His attorneys argue that the release of the footage would reveal "intimate, highly personal, and sensitive details concerning [Timberlake] and his family, including medical and familial information that is confidential in nature and not necessary to inform the public about governmental operations or the performance of official duties."
Burke and Del Piano have requested an emergency stay prohibiting the disclosure of the footage and an order prohibiting its dissemination "in whole or in part" when requested in any FOIL request or by any third party without a court order. They also requested the opportunity for Timberlake or the court to review the body-worn camera footage with proposed redactions to assess privacy interests.
At the time of his arrest, Timberlake told his arresting officer that he "had one martini" and was following his friends home, according to his arrest report obtained by PEOPLE. An officer observed the singer's 2025 BMW run through a stop sign and fail to stay on the right side of the road. The report also stated that Timberlake's "eyes were bloodshot and glassy."
Timberlake was arrested and taken to Sag Harbor Police Headquarters for processing but refused multiple times to take a chemical test. He was held overnight and arraigned the following morning. In September 2024, he agreed to plead guilty to a less serious offense of driving while impaired after initially being charged with driving while intoxicated. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine with a $260 surcharge, complete 25 hours of community service at a nonprofit of his choice, and have his license suspended for 90 days. He was also ordered to make a public service announcement about the dangers of driving impaired.
