Attorneys for Justin Timberlake have filed a petition looking to prevent the Village of Sag Harbor, NY from releasing "highly sensitive" video of the singer from the night he was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated in June 2024.
Court documents show the petition was filed by Timberlake's attorneys Edward J. Burke, Jr. and Michael del Piano with the New York State Supreme Court against the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, Sag Harbor Police Chief Robert Drake, and the Village of Sag Harbor , after media organizations made Freedom of Information Law requests.
According to Patch, the petition claims that any intent to disseminate body cam footage from Timberlake's traffic stop and arrest on June 18, 2024 would constitute "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under Public Officers Law" that "outweigh any purported public benefit from disclosure."
It notes that Timberlake was in an "acutely vulnerable state during a roadside encounter with law enforcement, capturing intimate details of [his] physical appearance, demeanor, speech, and conduct during field sobriety testing, the subsequent arrest, and petitioner’s confinement following arrest over the next several hours."
In addition, his attorneys argue that "public dissemination of this footage would cause severe and irreparable harm to [Timberlake's] personal and professional reputation, subject [him] to public ridicule and harassment, and serve no legitimate public interest in understanding the operations of government."
The approximately eight hours of recordings include "the entirety of the encounter, including the initial stop, questioning of [Timberlake], administration of standardized field sobriety tests, and [his] subsequent arrest." The petition declares that such material "encroaches upon areas of [his] life and emotional state that have no relevance at all to the arrest."
In September 2024, Timberlake plead to a lesser charge of driving while ability impaired (DWAI). He was fined $500 (plus surcharge), ordered to complete 25 hours of community service, and had his driver's licence suspended for 90 days.