On Tuesday afternoon in Sag Harbor, WABC-TV's Janice Yu sat in the passenger seat of a Nissan news van, eating from a bag of Smart Food popcorn. It was the closest she got to getting to the core of the news.
“We don't even know who he was with,” she added, referring to singer and actor Justin Timberlake. Justin was arrested by a Sag Harbor police officer just after midnight Tuesday and charged with driving under the influence.
Ms. Yu, a reporter for ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York, was one of several reporters standing on Main Street near the American Hotel, a 19th-century tavern where waiters serve Gardiner Bay littleneck clams and Long Island duckling confit to Boomer Stock sultans. It's the same place where Mr. Timberlake was partying with friends the night before.
Now it was a breezy, sunny day on the leafy street of this quaint-Hamptons-standard one-time whaling village, lined with shops selling everything from $30 Havaianas flip-flops to Charlotte Perriand's $4,600 swivel chairs. People dressed in Lululemon activewear strolled by, clutching açaí bowls and iced drinks.
Ms. Yu, who joined the local news team in 2022 after working at Fox5 in Atlanta, wore a turquoise and green J. Crew dress. Her field producer, John Spry, sat behind her in the van, wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
He had obtained a copy of the arrest report filed earlier that day in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court — but so did the reporters in the other vehicles lined up along the block, a convoy that included news trucks and vans from CBS, NBC, PIX 11, Entertainment Tonight, The Associated Press and CNN.
The police report said Mr. Timberlake got behind the wheel of a gray 2025 BMW after spending time at the American Hotel. It added that he hadn’t gone more than a few blocks before he ran into a stop sign at the corner of Madison Street and Germain, a tree-lined block where the homes don’t look like mansions.
He refused to take a breath test three times. According to the report, he told the arresting officer, “I had a martini and followed my friends home.” The report said Mr. Timberlake “performed poorly” on various field sobriety tests.
He was arrested and taken to the police station on Division Street, just behind the American Hotel. There, he handed over his wedding ring, his phone, his baseball cap, his watch, his wallet, a vape pen and green and blue paper used to manufacture marijuana, according to the police report. (In 2011, the singer told Playboy that he likes marijuana because it helps him “stop thinking.”)
Soon several news crews descended on Sag Harbor. At about 9:30 p.m., nearly nine hours after he was taken into police custody, Mr. Timberlake walked out of the station in handcuffs. Tabloid photographers captured him looking glum after his overnight stay. He headed to Sag Harbor Village Justice Court, located on Main Street less than 500 feet from the American Hotel, for his arraignment.
He hired Edward D. Burke Jr., a former Suffolk County prosecutor who has set up shop in a small office across from the American Hotel and established himself as one of the Hamptons' best-known criminal defense lawyers. Mr. Timberlake, who is scheduled to perform two shows at Madison Square Garden next week, has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence. A court date is set for July 26.
As Ms. Yu was shooting her last segment of the day, a CNN reporter stood outside the police station, which had closed at 4 p.m.
“I want a photo,” he yelled to an officer in a nearby patrol car.
“You have to call the media relations department,” the officer yelled.
Although the camera crew made the American Hotel look like a crime scene, all of the hotel's outside tables were full.
“It's not that upsetting. The weather is great,” said Southampton resident Theresa D'Andrea, who was enjoying oysters with her husband.
A few tables away, Stuart Levin, the former chief executive of Dale Carnegie & Associates, was eating a $45 crab cake with his wife, Harriet Levin.
He told one reporter, “You're not going to get a Pulitzer Prize for this.”
He said he didn't want to seem self-righteous (in fact, he didn't want to) but he felt the level of news coverage was a bit excessive, considering that Mr. Timberlake had not been in an accident.
“It's like an event,” he said.
Hampton resident Vanessa Gordon approached the WABC-TV news van while walking down the street with her 6-year-old son, Ben Gordon. He was wearing the same fight-wear he wears to his jujitsu class at Epic Martial Arts on Main Street.
Ms. Gordon asked Mr. Spry and Ms. Yu if their son could hold the microphone and pretend to send in the news. Mr. Spry asked him to come up, so he came up.
Andrew and Lauren Finkelstein, the parents of one of Ben’s jujitsu friends, soon arrived and asked if their son, Max, could join in the fun.
“We should charge an admission fee,” Mr. Spry said.
When 6-year-old Max Finkelstein grabbed the mic, his father asked him what he wanted to report on. He didn't have an answer, so his dad gave him a headline inspired by one of Mr. Timberlake's hit songs.
“Cry for me like a river!” Mr. Finkelstein called out.