Los Angeles, March 3 – Singer-actor Justin Timberlake is pursuing legal action to prevent the release of police body camera footage from his June 2024 arrest for driving under the influence (DUI).
The 45-year-old was arrested on a DUI charge after leaving the American Hotel in New York in 2024. He was initially charged with one count of DUI and two citations, one for running a red light and one for improper lane change, according to people.com.
The singer's lawyer maintained that Timberlake was "not intoxicated" at the time of his arrest. In September 2024, Timberlake reached a plea agreement, where he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser offense.
On March 2, the singer filed a petition in Suffolk County Supreme Court, claiming that releasing the police body camera footage of his arrest would violate his privacy.
"The public dissemination of this footage would cause severe and irreparable harm to (Timberlake's) personal and professional reputation, subject (Timberlake) to public ridicule and harassment, and serve no legitimate public interest," the petition read.
Timberlake's attorneys, Edward Burke Jr. and Michael J. Del Piano, claim that the public distribution of the video would expose footage inside Timberlake's car, as well as "highly personal details unrelated to government oversight."
Timberlake's petition comes after the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, Chief Robert Drake, and the Village of Sag Harbor received a request for the release of the footage under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), according to court documents.
His attorneys claim that with the release of the footage, it would reveal "intimate, highly personal, and sensitive details concerning (Timberlake) and his family, and includes information of medical, familial, otherwise confidential nature that is not necessary to inform the public about governmental operations or the performance of official duties."
The singer's attorneys had then requested the court "to issue an emergency stay prohibiting disclosure" of the footage.
His legal counsel requested "an order and judgment" that would prohibit the dissemination of the bodycam footage "in whole or in part" when requested in any FOIL request and by any third party who does not have a court order, according to people.com.
They also requested that Timberlake and/or the court would have the opportunity to "review the body-worn camera footage with proposed redactions to assess the privacy interests." The final request is to grant any "other, further, and different relief" the court may deem.