As expected, Justin Timberlake appeared in a Long Island, New York, court on Friday to plead guilty to one count of driving under the influence stemming from the singer's arrest in June.
Timberlake was initially charged with driving under the influence, to which he pleaded not guilty, after being arrested in Sag Harbor, but earlier this month agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of driving under the influence.
The difference between the two charges comes down to blood alcohol content — a blood alcohol content of over 0.05 “is legal evidence that you are under the influence of alcohol,” but “a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher is evidence of intoxication,” the New York Department of Motor Vehicles says — with “intoxication” carrying a lower penalty; if Timberlake had been convicted of the misdemeanor drunk driving charge, he would have faced up to a year in prison.
Instead, after pleading guilty to the non-criminal obstruction charge, Timberlake will only have to pay a $500 fine, declare a public safety service, and perform up to 40 hours of community service at a nonprofit of his choice, NBC News reported.
Outside the courtroom, Templerick issued a public service announcement. “This is a mistake I made, but I hope everyone watching and listening now learns from this mistake,” he said. The former boy band star — who was ordered to make a public statement after taking a plea deal to a lesser violation in the case — was ordered to do so. “Even if you’ve had one drink — don’t get behind the wheel.”
“When you talk about criminal liability, it’s certainly on a smaller scale,” Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney told Page Six ahead of Timberlake’s hearing on Friday. “This is a misdemeanor case, not a murder case or a felony case. So, you know, I think the fundamental challenges and what we strive to do is we strive to treat it like any other case of its kind. We don’t treat it any differently just because we’re under so much media scrutiny. And the media scrutiny in this case certainly goes well beyond that — it’s not what you typically see in a misdemeanor case.”
Timberlake was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence last June. According to a previous court filing, police officers caught Timberlake running a stop sign and then failing to “stay on the right side of the road” for several blocks.
Prosecutors said that when he was stopped, Timberlake's eyes were “bloodshot and glassy, his breath had a strong odor of alcohol, he was unable to concentrate, his speech was slowed, he was unsteady while walking, and he performed poorly on all standard field sobriety tests.” Timberlake also refused to take a breath test at the time.
At a later hearing, Timberlake's attorney claimed the singer “was not drunk and should not have been arrested,” and noted that police made “a number of very serious errors in this case.”
