NYC ballet master charged with DWI

The head of the New York City Ballet has been charged with driving while intoxicated.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal say ballet master Peter Martins was stopped at a DWI checkpoint in Yonkers at about 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

Westchester police spokesman Kieran O’Leary said Thursday he can only confirm that an Irvington resident named Peter Martins had been charged with DWI.

He said Martins failed a field sobriety test and refused three times to take a breath test. Martins also was issued two traffic tickets because his car, a two-door 2005 Bentley, drifted out of its lane twice while he was in the slow-moving line at the checkpoint, O’Leary said.

“He hit the curb on one side of the shoulder and was weaving out of the lane on the other side,” he said.

Martins is due in Yonkers City Court on the DWI charge on Jan. 18. His car was impounded but has since been returned, O’Leary said.

The ballet master issued a statement through a spokesman, saying it was a legal matter and he had been advised not to discuss it.

Martins, 64, joined the company as a principal dancer in 1970. He assumed sole directorship in 1989.

The police stop was made on the northbound Saw Mill River Parkway, a few miles south of Irvington.