Although Justin Timberlake and his lawyer insisted that the pop star was not drunk when he was stopped by police within the Hamptons, the arresting officer's report describes a driver who failed a series of sobriety tests and had difficulty speaking and standing safely.
Timberlake, who pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated last week, was arrested within the upscale Long Island community of Sag Harbor on June 18. He was out with friends on the American Hotel, a well-liked hangout within the Hamptons, where he was reportedly “intoxicated” and was seen drinking, including sipping one other guest's cocktail. reported the New York Post.
Young police officer Michael Arkinson observed Timberlake driving away from the hotel shortly after midnight and is alleged to have seen him ignore a stop sign and move into one other lane, the Daily Mail reported.
Arkinson's handwritten notes appear to point out that the officer followed procedure to find out that Timberlake exhibited quite a few signs of intoxication, reported the Daily Mail, which obtained a duplicate of the singer's arrest report. For example, Timberlake was swaying on his feet and unable to take care of his balance, the report said.
The report states that Timberlake was alone within the automobile when Arkinson stopped him. He was noted to have “bloodshot and glassy eyes, an odor of alcohol on his breath, an inability to concentrate and an unsteady step.”
The officer quoted the singer as saying, “I was drinking a martini and following my friends home.” However, Atkinson noted that Timberlake “was unable to concentrate on speaking while he was looking for the vehicle registration.”
Timberlake refused to take a breathalyzer test, a breath test that measures how much alcohol is within the exhaled air. The singer had every right to refuse the test, but refusing is taken into account a traffic violation that robotically ends in a one-year license suspension – which is strictly what happened to Timberlake last week during a virtual court hearing.
During the arrest, the young officer may not have been aware that he was arresting a world-famous entertainer. A source told Page Six that Timberlake once said, “This is going to ruin the tour.” When the official asked, “Which tour?” Timberlake had to clarify, “The world tour,” referring to his “Forget Tomorrow World Tour,” which had recently taken him to Europe.
During the sphere sobriety test, Timberlake was asked to take nine steps in a straight line, walking from heel to toe, then turn around and repeat the nine steps back. During the test, Timberlake was “very unbalanced” and “unable to properly follow directions.”
Next, Timberlake was asked to lift one foot barely off the bottom and keep it raised without moving for 30 seconds. Arkinson reported that Timberlake swayed in the course of the test, had to make use of his arms to take care of balance, and put his foot back down before the required 30 seconds had elapsed.
The officer then detained Timberlake, handcuffed him, and placed him within the back seat of the patrol automobile to be taken back to the police station. There, Arkinson took a list of Timberlake's belongings, which included a Rolex watch, a black vape pen, a gold ring, a wallet containing three $100 bills, a $5 bill, and a $1 bill.
At the police station, Timberlake also refused to take a second breathalyzer test, which could possibly be admitted as evidence. But Timberlake refused this too, saying, “No, I don't do a chemical test.”
When Timberlake was read his Miranda rights, he told Arkinson that he understood them and that he wouldn’t speak again with out a lawyer. The singer spent the remaining of the night within the police station, was arraigned the subsequent morning, after which released on his own bail.
Prosecutors charged Timberlake with drunk driving since the officer observed the singer during his breathalyzer test. Timberlake was also accused of ignoring a stop sign and failing to remain in his lane.
Timberlake's attorney, Edward Burke Jr., told reporters after an incident on July 26 that his client was not drunk and shouldn’t have been arrested for drunk driving, claiming police “made a number of very serious errors in this case.”
Timberlake can have a number of witnesses to back up his claim that he was not drunk, Page Six reported. First, the bartender on the American Hotel told Page Six that he only saw the singer drinking a martini. Second, the police had a friend of the singer, who had been drinking with him on the hotel, drive his BMW rental automobile back to their house. TMZ reported.
The friend and her husband drove ahead of Timberlake and led him to their house. When Timberlake was arrested, she stopped and approached the cops to ask them, “Are you going to arrest Justin Timberlake?”
Sources told Page Six that the lady offered to drive Timberlake to her house, where the pop star was planning to spend the night. Police apparently didn’t take the lady up on her offer and arrested Timberlake.
The twist is that police accepted the lady's other offer to drive Timberlake's rental automobile back to her house since he was going to jail, TMZ reported. Cops said OK, although sources said it will need to have been obvious she had been drinking too, since she arrived on the American Hotel two hours before Timberlake. Police still allowed her to drive away from the scene.
An Austin, Texas, attorney said the girlfriend's testimony could help Timberlake's defense. She could say, 'Hey, I drank the identical amount and I used to be wonderful and I got home safely,'” trial attorney Tray Grober said in a statement obtained by this news organization.
“If the police thought she was fit to drive despite her alcohol consumption, that's an excellent argument and can greatly profit Justin Timberlake's defense because it is going to create reasonable doubt within the minds of the jury,” Grober added.
Originally published:
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