Rose McGowan was arrested Tuesday on a felony cocaine warrant in Virginia stemming from a search in January of a wallet she had left on a plane, multiple news sites reported. She said she will plead not guilty and her lawyer suggested the possibility that the drug had been planted.
McGowan turned herself into authorities and was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond, Deadline.com reported.
People magazine reported that McGowan will be arraigned on Thursday and that the actress said, "I will clearly plead not guilty."
New Yorker magazine reported that, according to a police report, a Washington Dulles Airport staffer found McGowan's wallet on Jan. 20 containing two bags of white powder that tested to be cocaine.
McGowan had arrived there from Los Angeles to participate in the Women's March in the capital, the New Yorker and Deadline.com said, and the warrant was issued by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department on Feb. 1.
"The Class 5 felony charge stems from a police investigation of personal belongings that tested positive for narcotics and were left behind on a flight (United 653) arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport on Jan. 20, 2017," said Robert Yingling, public information officer for authority police, the Huffington Post reported.
McGowan told the New Yorker that fear and doubt made her hesitate to respond to the warrant for months, finally hiring a private investigator to confirm if the warrant was legitimate.
McGowan attorney Jim Hundley told the magazine that the drugs could have been planted, given the time that others had access to the wallet.
"Depending on when and where the wallet was lost, individuals other than Ms. McGowan had access to the wallet for somewhere between approximately 5 hours 40 minutes and more than 11 hours," Hundley wrote in a memorandum to Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Plowman, in an attempt to get the charges dismissed, according to the New Yorker.
McGowan, 44, best known for her role on the former television series "Charmed," has been one of the most vocal critics of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, charging that the movie mogul raped her in 1997, Deadline.com reported.
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