AMERICAN ACTRESS ROSE McGowan turned herself in yesterday near Washington before being released on bond after her personal belongings left on a flight tested positive for narcotics – which she says could have been planted in her bag.
McGowan, who has made headlines recently after becoming one of the first actresses to accuse fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape, was released on a $5,000 (€4,247) unsecured bond, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kraig Troxell told AFP.
Troxell could not confirm when McGowan was due in court.
“She turned herself in the early afternoon at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center,” Troxell said.
A warrant for her arrest had been issued earlier this year by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department.
‘I will clearly plead not guilty’
The charges stem from a police investigation of personal belongings McGowan left on a United Airlines flight arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport in January.
The items allegedly contained traces of unspecified narcotics. Some reports said cocaine was to blame.
Speaking to The New Yorker, McGowan said that later that morning, an airport police detective, Jerrod Hughes, called McGowan and asked her to collect the wallet, without disclosing what had been found in it.
She told The New Yorker that the call had frightened her as she was unsure if Hughes was a real officer.
A few months before this incident, McGowan had tweeted about being raped by a “studio head”. She has since made rape allegations against Weinstein.
She said that she began to feel nervous attending public events, such as the Women’s March, as she believed she was being followed by private investigators hired by Weinstein.
A warrant was issued for McGowan’s arrest on 1 February and she had initially hesitated to hand herself in.
“Things started to get really weird. I knew I was being followed and that I wasn’t safe. I even hired a private investigator to investigate whether the warrant was real,” McGowan told The New Yorker, speaking of the decision to hand herself in.
After news of the warrant became public, McGowan tweeted: “Are they trying to silence me? There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSESHIT.”
In a public speech last month, McGowan decried what she called a pervasive culture of sexual misconduct in Hollywood, and urged women to fight back.
McGowan claims that the drugs could have been planted in her wallet, given the timespan of which people may have had access to it.
She told The New Yorker that she had brought a slim card wallet with her on her trip to Washington.
She said that she didn’t take her wallet out of her bag during the flight.
“I had it in the side pocket of my backpack, and I left it on my seat as I went to the bathroom,” she said.
It was only when she was standing at baggage claim in arrivals that she discovered her wallet was gone, the interview explains.
McGowan told The New Yorker that she has used drugs in the past.
“I own stock in a marijuana company, so that’s my jam,” she told reporter Ronan Farrow.
Speaking about her upcoming court hearing, McGowan said: “I will clearly plead not guilty.”
With reporting by © – AFP 2017.
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