Judge also reprimands singer’s lawyer and threatens gag after “irresponsible” comments the attorney made last week to the press
Justin Timberlake pleaded not guilty Friday to charges related to his DWI arrest on Long Island in June.
Timberlake appeared virtually during the hearing Friday, as the singer’s tour that was gonna be ruined is currently in Antwerp, Belgium. He entered a not-guilty plea to one count of driving while intoxicated, after which the judge suspended Timberlake’s Tennessee driver’s license in the state of New York, which is customary in the aftermath of DWI arrests.
While the hearing was short and largely procedural, the judge did take a moment to admonish Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke, over comments the attorney made publicly last week in regard to the charges against his client.
“The most important fact to know about this case is that Justin was not intoxicated and should not have been arrested for DWI,” Burke said last Friday. “The police made a number of very significant errors in this case… Sometimes the police make mistakes and this is just one of those instances.”
At the hearing, Sag Harbor Justice Carl Irace warned Burke about making “irresponsible” remarks, as it “comes off as an attempt to poison the case before it even begins.” Irace also threatened to issue a gag order if the lawyer continued to make comments like that in public, NBC News reports.
The next hearing in Timberlake’s DWI case is on August 9, though the singer won’t have to physically attend on that date either. A more important hearing is scheduled for September 13, which Timberlake may be required to attend; that date coincides with a break in the singer’s world tour, which picks back up on September 28 in Newark, New Jersey.