Justin Timberlake ‘reaches plea deal to resolve drink-driving case’

Justin Timberlake is scheduled to enter a new plea in his drink-driving case in New York’s Hamptons, US prosecutors said.

Details of the plea deal were not disclosed but a source told AP that Timberlake has agreed to plead guilty to a less serious offence than the original charge of driving while intoxicated.

Timberlake’s lawyer Edward Burke declined to comment.

The pop singer is set to appear in person on Friday in Sag Harbor Village Court to enter a plea, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office confirmed on Wednesday.

Timberlake was arrested in the village of Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, on June 18 after police said he drove through a stop sign, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol.

The 43-year-old pleaded not guilty to a drink-driving charge.

At a hearing last month, a judge suspended Timberlake’s right to drive in New York.

Mr Burke has maintained that Timberlake was not drunk and that the case should be dropped.

Timberlake was pulled over after leaving a Sag Harbor hotel at around 12.30am, according to police.

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odour of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardised field sobriety tests,” police said in a court filing.

Timberlake told the officer he had drunk one martini and was following some friends home, according to police. He was arrested and spent the night in custody at a police station.

A 10-time Grammy winner, Timberlake began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in the early 2000s.

Sag Harbor is a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick that is nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles east of New York City.