Los Angeles, March 3 (IANS) Singer-actor Justin Timberlake is taking the legal route to block the release of the police body cam footage from his June 2024 driving while intoxicated (DWI) arrest.
The 45-year-old was arrested on a DWI charge after leaving the American Hotel in New York, in 2024. He was initially charged with one count of driving while intoxicated and two citations, one for running a stop sign and one for failure to keep in the lane, reports people.com.
The star’s lawyer, maintained that Timberlake was “not intoxicated” when he was arrested. In September 2024, Timberlake reached a plea deal, at the time, where he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser offense.
On March 2, the singer had filed a petition in Suffolk County Supreme Court, claiming that releasing the police body camera footage of his arrest would invade his privacy.
“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 public distribution of the video would expose the footage inside Timberlake’s car, as well as “expose highly personal details unrelated to public oversight of governmental operations.”
Timberlake’s petition comes after the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, Department Chief Rober 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 “enter 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, reports 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.
