Justin Timberlake makes lengthy apology outside of court after pleading guilty in viral DWI case

On the 13th of September, NSYNC singer and actor Justin Timberlake pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal following his DWI arrest back in June.

After his sentencing, Timberlake made a statement urging the public not to make the same mistake.

“Many of you have probably been covering me for a lot of my life and as you may know I try to hold myself to a very high standard for myself, and this was not that,” he said outside the court.

“I found myself in a position where I could have made a different decision,” he said.

“I’ve had some time to reflect on that and I also understand by the fact that all of you are here that I have a platform, you have a platform, we share that,” he added.

“So what I’d like to say to everyone watching and listening… even if you’ve had one drink – don’t get behind the wheel of a car.”

“There’s so many alternatives, call a friend, get an Uber.”

“This is a mistake that I made, but I’m hoping that whoever is watching and listening right now can learn from this mistake. I know that I certainly have,” he continued.

Before his agreement, Timberlake pleaded Not Guilty, which if found guilty, he could have recieved up to one year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Instead, he got a charge of “Driving while ability impaired” and a $300-$500 fine, 90-day driving suspension, a public safety announcement and 25-40 hours of community service of his choice.

According to court filings, Timberlake’s eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and his breath emitted a strong odour of alcohol. 

“He was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the court filings revealed.

He reportedly told the officer: “This is going to ruin the tour.”

“What tour?” the officer replied, according to the docs.

“The World Tour,” Timberlake responded.