Photo Credit: Hamptons.com Live Feed
Justin Timberlake appeared virtually at his DWI hearing on Friday, where the judge suspended his license and threatened his lawyer with a gag order.
Timberlake appeared wearing a black collared shirt for his hearing via video conference from Antwerp, Belgium. Sag Harbor Justice Carl Irace berated the musician’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., for what he called “irresponsible” comments made at the last court hearing, with the judge saying it “comes off as an attempt to poison the case before it even begins.”
Justice Irace suspended Timberlake’s license because he refused to take a breathalyzer test on June 18 when he was pulled over. His license will remain suspended while the case is ongoing, according to Burke Jr. The hearing lasted for around a half hour, ending with the admonishment of Burke, with the judge telling the attorney to “raise the bar, not lower it.”
Speaking with reporters outside the courthouse, Burke Jr. says he plans on filing motions and letting “the content of those motions and arguments contained therein speak for themselves.” Burke Jr. also continued with Timberlake’s claim that he was not intoxicated at the time he was pulled over.
“We all have jobs to do, and we’re obligated to zealously defend our clients, and that’s what I plan on doing,” Burke Jr. told a reporter when asked about the judge’s threat of a gag order. The hearing comes more than a month after Timberlake was pulled over after failing a field sobriety test. He was arrested on suspicion of intoxicated driving in the Hamptons, an affluent area of Long island. Timberlake claims he had “one martini” before he was pulled over, pleading not guilty.
Timberlake was driving a BMW with Florida license plates when he was stopped shortly after midnight for driving through a stop sign and failing to stay on the right side of the road. Police who spoke to Timberlake that night say he was in no shape to drive, stating “his eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot, and performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” writes Sag Harbor Village police officer Michael Arkinson.
