Justin Timberlake reported plea deal being 'treated like any other case'
Justin Timberlake isn't getting special treatment after he entered a plea deal for drink driving, according to the district attorney presiding over the case.
The singer was pulled over for driving while intoxicated on 18 June. After initially being charged with drunk driving, a reported plea deal would mean the offence would be downgraded to a traffic violation.
Now Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has spoken out, saying that the 43-year-old star isn't receiving any special treatment.
"He's charged with driving while intoxicated... (Then) there's a lesser charge as driving while impaired, which happens in a number of cases. So we're going to continue to negotiate the case. So we'll see. We'll see how it plays out in court, whether or not we could come to an agreement... We have to see," he told Page Six.
He added, "The one thing that we want to make sure we're doing is... being consistent, and we don't want to treat any defendant better than others because of, you know, because of any perceived notoriety they may have. But we certainly don't want to treat people worse for the same reason. So we're taking pains to make sure that we're treating this case like any other case of its kind."
He continued, "When you talk about criminal liability, this is certainly on the lower scale... This is a misdemeanour case and not a murder or felony case. And we don't treat it differently just because we are getting a lot of media scrutiny."
If Justin's charge is downgraded, it's believed he'd have to pay a fine of between $300 (£228) to $500 (£380).