Justin Timberlake’s viral arrest in 2024 has returned to public consciousness as the pop star lawyered up to keep New York officials from releasing footage from the incident.
Attorneys for “Mirrors” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” star Timberlake, 45, on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Village of Sag Harbor, the Sag Harbor Police Department and its chief of police. The complaint, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court, alleges that the police department’s intention to release police body camera footage from the singer’s arrest in June 2024 “constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” and would “cause severe and irreparable harm” to the singer’s “personal and professional reputation.”
The lawsuit said the footage shows Timberlake “in an acutely vulnerable state” and includes sensitive information, including familial and medical details.
Representatives for singer-actor Timberlake did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. The Sag Harbor Police Department and the Sag Harbor Mayor Thomas Gardella also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Timberlake was arrested and charged on June 18, 2024, on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Police alleged at the time that the “Cry Me a River” singer failed to stop at a stop sign and stay in his lane while driving a 2025 BMW in the affluent seaside village. Police said the officer who stopped Timberlake determined the singer was intoxicated. Officials also noted at the time that the “SexyBack” pop star had “bloodshot and glassy” eyes, was unable to divide his attention, had slowed speech and “performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests.”
The NSYNC frontman, amid his Forget Tomorrow world tour, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of impaired driving, had his driving privileges suspended and was sentenced in September to 25 hours of community service at a nonprofit of his choosing. He was also required to pay a $500 fine with a $260 surcharge and to make a public safety announcement about the dangers of impaired driving.
Timberlake’s arrest went viral online in 2024, with his mugshot and his alleged comment about the scandal ruining “the world tour” quickly becoming meme material.
According to court documents, police notified Timberlake’s legal counsel on Sunday that it intended to release the footage from the arrest. The singer’s team swiftly responded by submitting a written objection, which the police verbally denied, according to the lawsuit. Police told Timberlake’s team it intended to release the arrest video on Monday.
The footage, the lawsuit said, spans eight continuous hours, documenting Timberlake’s initial stop, the officer’s questioning, sobriety tests, the singer’s arrest and hours of his confinement over several hours. This “encroaches upon areas of [Timberlake’s] life and emotional state that have no relevance at all to [the singer’s] arrest,” the complaint said.
In addition to potentially harming his reputation, release of the body-cam footage would “subject [Timberlake] to public ridicule and harassment,” the lawsuit said.
“The harm from public exposure — stigma, harassment, reputational injury, and the permanent loss of privacy — is immediate and irreparable,” the complaint said.
Timberlake and his legal team requested in the complaint that the court block the release of the video. The Associated Press reported that a Sag Harbor judge did not immediately rule on the complaint following a hearing on Monday, but requested the opposing parties “confer on a possible resolution and report back later in the week.”
A year after his arrest, Timberlake said in late July 2025 that he powered through a “relentlessly debilitating” bout of Lyme disease while on his world tour, which kicked off in April 2024. The early months of his tour were marred with various obstacles, including health-related cancellations, in addition to the arrest, which he did not directly address in his note to fans.
As he thanked supporters for their “energy and love” and praised his tour crew, he said at the time, “I honestly don’t know what my future is onstage.” He has not posted to his Instagram page since.
Times editorial library director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com ’
