Northeast
Justin Timberlake’s DWI joke angers mom of drunken-driving victim: 'He lost a fan'
The mother of a drunken-driving crash victim is speaking out to express her disappointment after Justin Timberlake appeared to make light of his June 18 DWI during a Saturday show in Boston.
“So, uh, is there anyone here tonight that is driving — no, I’m just kidding,” he said during the show, seemingly joking that members of his own audience might be driving under the influence. He went on to thank his fans for 30 years of support.
The former *NSYNC star was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated along with citations for failure to keep right and failure to stop at a stop sign for the alleged drunken-driving that occurred after midnight in the Hamptons in New York last month.
Sheila Lockwood, whose 23-year-old son, Austin, was killed by a drunken driver in 2018, told Fox News Digital that Timberlake has one fewer fan after his comments in Boston.
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Justin Timberlake’s mugshot taken at the Sag Harbor Police Department. (Sag Harbor Police Department)
The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) national ambassador said “there is nothing funny about” the charges filed against the international pop star.
“It’s very disappointing. He has a huge platform that he could be using to bring awareness to this,” Lockwood said. “It is a national crisis. Every 79 seconds, someone’s killed or injured from drunk driving, and he’s standing on stage making a joke of it. It’s not funny.”
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Sheila Lockwood, whose 23-year-old son, Austin, was killed by a drunken driver in 2018, told Fox News Digital that Timberlake has one fewer fan after his comments in Boston. (Handout)
Lockwood noted that Timberlake’s legal case is still ongoing and added that he “should have not mentioned anything about it at all” or instead taken “the opportunity to make it a teaching moment and raise awareness and admit that his choices were not good that night.”
“It’s not funny, and as a mom that has lost a son, it’s very disheartening. He lost a fan here. I don’t think it was appropriate, and there’s nothing funny about it. What message does it send to young fans?” she said.
VIDEO SHOWS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE DRIVING MOMENTS BEFORE DWI ARREST
Austin Lockwood’s mother says she is disappointed that Justin Timberlake apparently joked about his DWI charge instead of using his platform to share an important message about the dangers of drunken driving. (Handout)
Thirty-seven people die of drunken driving per day in the United States, Lockwood noted. Her son Austin became one of those 37 people on June 10, 2018. He left Illinois on June 8, headed for Wisconsin to clean out an acquaintance’s cabin because he “would do anything for anybody,” she said.
He was driving with a friend on June 10, a Saturday evening, when the friend “decided to go over 70 miles an hour on a very dangerous tree-lined narrow road and slammed into a tree and took Austin’s life immediately,” Lockwood said. The driver was sentenced to three years in prison and four years of extended supervision.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE’S RESPONSIBLE DRINKING COMMERCIAL WITH *NSYNC RESURFACES AFTER DWI ARREST
The driver who killed Austin Lockwood in a DWI incident was sentenced to three years in prison, plus four years of extended supervision. (handout)
MADD CEO Stacey Stewart similarly told Fox News Digital that the organization as a whole is “profoundly disappointed by Justin Timberlake’s recent remarks at a concert where he made light of drunk driving, which is a serious crime that has devastating consequences.”
“Drunk driving fatalities have increased by 33% since 2019. More than 13,000 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2022,” Stewart noted. “Impaired driving is never a laughing matter. It is alarming and disheartening when a public figure trivializes such a critical issue. Timberlake has a significant platform and the opportunity to influence millions. Rather than making a joke, he could use his voice to educate his audience about the dangers of impaired driving and encourage everyone to prioritize a safe ride home.”
WATCH:
Stewart added that MADD is looking toward different solutions to “end this worsening public health crisis,” including “impaired driving prevention technology” in all new vehicles through the federal HALT Act.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Timberlake’s lawyer and his media representatives.
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State Treasurer Erick Russell achieved a 14% increase last year investing Connecticut’s pension fund assets, gaining roughly $8.3 billion for retirement programs for state employees, teachers and other municipal workers.
The state, which oversees nearly $69 billion in pension assets, aims for an average annual return on pension investments of 6.9%.
Expectations for bigger gains grew throughout the past year as key stock market indices surged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges, grew by more than 13% in 2025. And the S&P 500, which follows 500 traded companies, topped 16%.
Among peer states and other entities that manage public pension funds holding more than $10 billion in assets, Connecticut’s 2025 performance ranks in the top 17%, Russell said.
But the treasurer, who also announced this week he will seek a second term, said the latest big earnings stem from more than the big gains Wall Street enjoyed in 2025.
“Markets certainly have been strong, but a lot of this is about our overall asset allocation,” said Russell, who updated the Investment Advisory Council Tuesday on the state’s portfolio. “The progress we’ve been making … is a good sign that we’re set up for future success.”
Russell also reported investment gains of 10.3% for the 2024 calendar year and 12.8% for 2023.
State officials particularly have focused on improving investment returns since a May 2023 report from Yale University researchers found Connecticut’s results badly lagged the nation’s over the prior decade.
That only compounded an even larger pension problem that state officials began to address in the early 2010s. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Connecticut governors and legislatures failed to save adequate for pension benefits for more than seven decades prior to 2011. This deprived the state treasurer of huge assets that otherwise could have been invested to generate billions of dollars in revenue over those seven decades.
The treasurer’s office under Russell has put more funds into private and domestic markets and curbed reliance on investment managers who receive large fees for their work.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly also have greatly assisted efforts to bolster the fiscal health of pension programs in recent years. Since 2020, they have used $10 billion from budget surpluses to make supplemental payments into pensions for state employees and municipal teachers. That’s in addition to annual required payments that currently approach $3.3 billion in the General Fund.
“These returns highlight the impressive work of Treasurer Russell and his team in increasing investment returns,” Lamont’s budget spokesman, Chris Collibee, said Tuesday. “Gov. Lamont’s focus has been on building a sustainable Connecticut for the future. Every dollar in additional investment revenue is funds the state can use to cut taxes and provide more resources for essential programs like education, child care, housing, and social services safety nets.”
Russell, a New Haven Democrat, said he has tried to make the office both “disciplined and forward-looking.”
“Over the last several years, we haven’t just changed how the office works, we’ve changed who it works for. We’re ushering in a new era of fiscal responsibility, making significant payments on long-term debt that has allowed us to invest in the residents of Connecticut and begin to lift up communities across our state.”
Russell also brokered a key compromise in 2023 between Lamont and the legislature that salvaged the Baby Bonds program, an initiative that invests long-term funds in Connecticut’s poorest children when they’re born to help finance educational and business opportunities later in life.
Keith M. Phaneuf is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org). Copyright 2026 © The Connecticut Mirror.
A person was hit by a vehicle Tuesday morning in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Police responded just after 10 a.m. to the crash at the intersection of Elm Street and Carter Street.
Officers began treating the pedestrian, who was then taken to an area hospital with unspecified injuries.
The driver stayed at the scene, the Waltham Police Department said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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