Justin Timberlake’s lawyer is trying to throw JT’s drunk friend under the bus…?

Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated in June. He refused the breathalyzer, but his drunk ass was driving on the wrong side of the road and he missed a stop sign. He was also visibly intoxicated, and the arresting officer could smell the liquor on him. After Justin spent one night in jail, he sobered up, hired a local lawyer and at least one clownish crisis manager. Whoever is running crisis management for Justin these days is doing a terrible job – they were trying to doxx the arresting officer, but everyone took the cop’s side. The crisis management team has also been running around, bribing people to publicly claim that Justin only had one drink and that he was definitely not drunk, not at all. Well, last Friday, Justin’s lawyer had several motions before the court:

Justin Timberlake will be arraigned next Friday on a misdemeanor charge of driving drunk in June in this waterfront village about 100 miles from New York City, and the pop singer will appear for the hearing virtually, by a remote link while he is on tour in Europe, a judge ruled on Friday. Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace also agreed to review a motion by Timberlake’s attorney, Edward D. Burke Jr., to dismiss the case outright based on what Burke called a procedurally “defective” criminal complaint filed by the Sag Harbor Village Police officer who arrested Timberlake.

Burke said that the local police department failed to have a supervising officer sign off on the criminal complaint that detailed the “young” and “part-time” officer’s interactions with Timberlake. Irace said the arraignment will still go forward based on a revised criminal complaint filed earlier in July by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. A prosecutor, Ashley Cangro, said the paperwork issue raised by Burke has no bearing ”on the facts of the case.”

Timberlake has a concert scheduled for tonight in Krakow, Poland. Irace briefly paused the half-hour hearing so that Burke could find a workable court date next week for his client. “Find out what day — whoever you have to talk to — what day we can do a video arraignment with your client.”

Outside the red-brick municipal building housing the court, Burke told reporters, “The most important thing we have to say today is obviously that Justin should not have been arrested for driving while intoxicated. The police made a number of very significant errors in this case, and you heard the District Attorney try to fix one of those errors just this morning upstairs in court.”

Burke emphasized that his client respects law enforcement and the judiciary, but said that police officers, being human, sometimes “make mistakes.” He added that Timberlake “cooperated with the police officers from the second he was ordered out of his car to the second he was discharged on June 18th” by the same judge. “But the facts remain,” Burke added, “he was not intoxicated. I’ll say it again: Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated and we’re confident that charge — that criminal charge — will be dismissed.”

[From Deadline]

With no Breathalyzer analysis and – I’m assuming – no blood-alcohol test administered when he was arrested, is this a he-said/he-said situation? Not to get too CSI about it, but I would imagine the prosecution could get their hands on traffic video and security footage of Justin’s drunk ass driving down the wrong side of the road. They could even get eyewitness testimony about his behavior in the bar – I doubt Justin’s team managed to pay off everyone in the bar, you know? All of this because Justin doesn’t want to admit that he’s got substance abuse issues. Sigh. Meanwhile, TMZ is still getting briefings from Justin’s lawyer, and this is their latest story:

Justin Timberlake might have an ace in the hole to get his DWI case dismissed … and it’s a woman who took the keys to his car after his arrest … TMZ has learned. As we reported, Justin was busted for drunk driving last month, after partying with friends at a Sag Harbor hotel. Cops say they saw him blow a stop sign and swerve as he was following some friends.

After he was stopped, cops say he failed multiple sobriety field tests and also smelled of alcohol. He refused to blow into a Breathalyzer, and claimed he only drank one martini. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the car Justin was following came back to where the singer was pulled over. There was a woman and her husband in that car, and the woman got out and went up to one of the cops and began questioning him, asking, “Are you going to arrest Justin Timberlake?”

She then offered to drive Justin to their house, where he was going to spend the night … in other words, just let him go and she and her husband would get him home safely. That strategy did not work, and Justin was arrested.

Now here’s the twist. Our sources say the woman asked cops if she could take Justin’s rental car to her house, given that Justin was going to jail. The cops obliged, she got in Justin’s car and left. We’re told the woman had arrived at The American Hotel 2 hours before Justin and was drinking … and it was apparent she had been drinking. Yet the 2 cops who were on the scene let her take the wheel and drive away.

We’re told Justin’s lawyer, Edward Burke, Jr. — who is trying to get the case dismissed — will argue the 2 young cops were so off in their judgment, they let a person who had clearly been drinking drive away, right in front of their eyes. If they were unable to properly evaluate her, how could they properly evaluate him?

[From TMZ]

How many extra things happened around the DWI arrest of one washed-up pop star? While I’m no big-city lawyer, this story makes no sense as a “reason” why Timberlake’s case would be or could be dismissed. The argument of “that woman was drunker than Justin, therefore you must acquit” is bonkers. Justin is also clearly throwing a friend under the bus too?? Nothing quite like a has-been trying to save his own skin and avoid going to rehab.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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30 Responses to “Justin Timberlake’s lawyer is trying to throw JT’s drunk friend under the bus…?”

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  1. Pinkosaurus says:

    Justin Timberlake will always blame a woman to save himself when he’s acted badly, thats the lesson here right?

  2. Aimee says:

    This is his M.O. Throw the woman under the bus.

  3. ML says:

    Justin Timberlake has a long history of throwing women under a bus to save his own rank skin. How “Justin Timberlake” of him this is!
    Honestly, I cannot imagine that a woman who had clearly been drinking (to the point of impairment) just got a set of keys from the cops and they were totally oblivious to her breath, body odor, slurred speech and weaving. Did he forget that the cops had just stopped him and issued him a warning minutes before with the understanding that someone else drive home? And he thinks it’s believable that they were like, “oh, you’re not a celebrity and you’re a woman, here are the keys.”?
    If he had taken breathalyzers and/or a blood test, then there would be proof. Here, by not taking those tests, he implicitly admitted guilt.
    Grow up!

  4. Newt says:

    Just pay your fine, keep your mouth shut and move on, sir. That’s truly all he has to do. He’s making this much worse than it needs to be.

    He’s behaving like someone in denial would behave in that he feels the need to beat this to death.

    Oh, wait. Hmmmmmm

    • AMB says:

      Anyone else hearing Jessie Royce Landis in your head, “Roger, pay the two dollars”?

    • lucy2 says:

      That’s what I’ve been saying too! If he’d just accepted responsibility, apologized, deal with the fine or whatever, this would have been over and done with and most people wouldn’t think about it again. But his ego won’t let him be wrong.

  5. Jais says:

    I’m sure his friends turning around and getting up in the cop’s face and questioning if he was really going to arrest Justin Timberlake was helpful. So many douchebags in this story.

    • Newt says:

      I think I read that the cop didn’t know who he was? If so, I bet that offended him and his friend more than the arrest.

    • bisynaptic says:

      Yup. Side-eye to the company he keeps.

  6. sevenblue says:

    Wow. I can’t believe he found a woman to blame for this as well. They should release the footage from the cop cam.

  7. Digital Unicorn says:

    Douche bro is about to find out – he’s a washed irrelevant up pop star who thinks he’s untouchable cause he’s famous and how dare that cop not let him off. I suspect we will be seeing the cam and CCTV footage which am sure will be very damaging to Timbers.

    Really can’t stand him – he has a face that you could slap all day.

  8. Mslove says:

    I guess the arresting officer won’t be getting free tickets to the world tour. Bummer.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Well from what I hear there are plenty tickets still to be had – the tour is not the ‘sell out’ he is.

  9. Aimee says:

    That’s it: Throwing a woman under the bus to save yourself = You’ve just been Timberlaked.

  10. Lau says:

    Moral of the story : maybe don’t be friends with Justin Timberlakes.
    Also I laughed at the “Are you going to arrest Justin Timberlake?”, perfect sequel to “This is going to ruin the World Tour”.

  11. Eurydice says:

    I don’t understand where this strategy is going.

  12. slippers4life says:

    Whatever happens in court, and I hope he’s convicted, the desperation of hanging onto what little shred of Teflon white boyness he has is palpable here. If he is convicted, they will all have to admit that it’s really over for him. Like, own your actions, express extreme gratitude for the arresting officer stopping you from hurting anyone; and access support for substance misuse, and people would build you back up. Fall on your sword before it falls on you, as they say! But, he wants to apologize to absolutely f#$%ING noone so, looks like it’ll be the latter and we are all hoping this is it

  13. Lauren says:

    Why any women would want to associate with JT knowing his track record of throwing woman under a bus I’ll never know.

  14. Rnot says:

    Rock bottom is going to be UGLY. He’s not going to change his behavior until he’s forced to.

  15. Flamingo says:

    They have the body cam of him failing the sobriety tests. The prosecutor isn’t dumb. I am sure they will go to the hotel for security video of Justing throwing back more than one martini.

    While 100% they should have tested anyone driving in that group for sobriety. The fact remains Justin was legally drunk and driving.

    Personally, I think they will take a plea deal to avoid a trial circus. Or will they be emboldened by Alec Baldwins trial F up. And think they can get it dismissed with prejudice also.

    God, I hope there is a trial, and we get to see it live streamed. I am a trial junkie.

    • SciLies says:

      I’m not sure of the laws where this happened, but in my state refusing a breathalyzer is basically the same as a guilty plea. It’s an automatic suspension of license and DUI. You can keep fighting it if you at least take the breathalyzer.

      • Kelly says:

        Scilies it’s that way in my state too, plus if you refuse they can get a court order to draw your blood for testing. I wonder if that’s not the case there where he did this-surely they would have to get more evidence to have a clear case

      • Flamingo says:

        @SciLies yes for the average person that is a punishment. But for someone that can hire a full time driver 24/7 it’s less of a punishment for JT. And even with that Judges usually throw defendants a bone with an ignition lock/breath tester and can drive only for school or going to work.

        @Kelly 100% they could have gone to a night judge for a warrant for a blood draw. But they didn’t. I wonder if that was his celebrity special treatment. Or there was a valid reason for not getting it. That I hope comes out in discovery or on the stand.

  16. Jay says:

    How hard is it to just stay quiet? Why remind everyone of your arrest? I have to wonder if maybe it’s a way of ginning up ticket sales from his “supporters”? I’ve heard sales have not been great.

    Also, a reminder that he was caught driving on an early Tuesday morning.

  17. Bumblebee says:

    He is really milking this for all the free publicity he can get. That’s why he’s dragging this out right? To keep his name in the press? Because, otherwise…