The founder of 'Martha Stewart Living' was once accused of backing into a landscaper in East Hampton
Justin Timberlake arrested for DWI
Singer and songwriter Justin Timberlake was arrested Monday night and accused of driving while intoxicated in New York, according to the Associated Press.
Justin Timberlake was arrested Tuesday morning, accused of driving while intoxicated in Sag Harbor, New York. But the former NSYNC frontman is not the only celebrity to face the long arm of the law in the Hamptons.
Billy Joel was arrested more than 30 years ago during a staged protest by commercial fishermen from the East Hampton Baymen’s Association in Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett for defying a 1990 state regulation and illegally catching striped bass.
"The net was thick with the illegally harvested striped bass, and the beach was filled with police cars, emergency vehicles, and work trucks," the East Hampton Star wrote two years ago of the July 28, 1992, arrests. "Billy Joel, whose song ‘The Downeaster Alexa’ commemorates the baymen’s hardships, was there with Supervisor Tony Bullock and other elected officials."
The state regulations had threatened the fishermen’s livelihoods at the time.
JESSICA BIEL AND JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE LEFT HOLLYWOOD TO AVOID GETTING ‘HAMMERED’ BY PAPARAZZI
From left to right, Justin Timberlake, Martha Stewart and Billy Joel have all had their issues with the law in the Hamptons. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images | Kevin Mazur/WireImage | Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
The charges against the "Piano Man" were later dropped.
The "New York State of Mind" singer also crashed his car into a tree in Sag Harbor in 2003.
He was briefly hospitalized but not arrested.
"There was no alcohol involved," his spokeswoman told the New York Daily News at the time, according to the Star. "He had an accident on a bad stretch of road."
Following Timberlake's arrest on Tuesday, FOX 5 spoke with Joel, who was leaving The American Hotel, the same restaurant where Timberlake had dined the night before.
When asked to comment on Timberlake, Joel stated, "Judge not lest ye be judged."
Billy Joel was involved in a protest with local fishermen that led to his arrest in 1992 in the Hamptons. (John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in 1997, a landscaper working for real estate mogul Harry Macklowe, who was Martha Stewart’s East Hampton neighbor, accused the lifestyle guru of intentionally backing her car into him, pinning him against a gate.
Stewart had driven her car into Macklowe’s driveway and exchanged words with him before she backed out while landscapers were working in the front yard.
The police chief said at the time the incident appeared to be "reckless," not intentional, and Stewart could have faced second-degree reckless endangerment and attempted assault in the third degree charges, the East Hampton Star wrote at the time.
Ultimately, the "Martha Stewart Living" founder did not face any charges.
"Justice and common sense dictate that the confrontation between Ms. Stewart and [Matthew] Munnich, [the landscaper], as objectionable as it may appear, does not warrant arrest and criminal prosecution," the Suffolk County district attorney said at the time, according to the Star. "Not every event which adversely affects a person's life deserves to be litigated in criminal court."
Martha Stewart in East Hampton in 2007. (Adriel Reboh/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
In a statement at the time, Stewart said, "It is unfortunate that accusations like this take the D.A. away from much more pressing duties and are a terrible waste of taxpayer time, money, and energy."
Her lawyer added, "We have maintained all along that Martha Stewart has done nothing illegal" and that she "at no time intended any harm."
Stewart later spent five months in a federal prison in West Virginia in 2004 for lying about a stock trade.
Fast-forward to June 18, when Timberlake became the most recent notable name to face the law in one of the posh Long Island beach neighborhoods. The "Cry Me a River" singer "performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests," the arresting officer claimed in documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE INSISTED HE ONLY HAD ‘1 MARTINI,' REFUSED BREATHALYZER TEST BEFORE DWI ARREST
Justin Timberlake performing in 2022. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Children's Hospital Los Angeles)
Timberlake had "bloodshot and glossy" eyes, a "strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath" and he was "unable to divide attention," according to the complaint. The "Bye Bye Bye" singer also exhibited "slowed speech" and was "unsteady afoot."
Justin Timberlake was arraigned Tuesday morning in Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, according to a statement from the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. (Sag Harbor Police Department)
Timberlake was arraigned Tuesday morning in Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, according to a statement from the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.
Fox News' Lauryn Overhultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
