Virginia

Rose McGowan Plans Not Guilty Plea on Virginia Drug Charge

Actress Rose McGowan says she will plead not guilty when she is arraigned Thursday on a drug charge outside Washington, D.C.

McGowan surrendered to Airports Authority Police on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said. She was charged with possession of a controlled substance and released on $5,000 bond.

The felony charge stems from what police say were narcotics found among McGowan's personal belongings left behind on a flight to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. 

McGowan and her lawyer, Jim Hundley, told The New Yorker that cocaine found in McGowan's wallet could have been planted. She realized after the flight, as she headed to the Women's March, that her wallet was gone and said she does not use cocaine.

“Imagining I’m going into sisterly solidarity, I can think of nothing more opposed to that, energetically, that I would want in my body at that moment," she told The New Yorker.

McGowan is among several actresses who have said movie mogul Harvey Weinstein forced them into unwanted sex, something Weinstein has denied.

McGowan told The New Yorker that even though the warrant was issued Feb. 1, she didn't respond to it for months out of fear that she was being followed by people hired by Weinstein. She says she hired a private investigator to investigate whether the warrant was real.

McGowan reacted on Twitter to news of the warrant in October.  

"Are they trying to silence me? There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSES---," she said.

McGowan has become one of the leading voices against sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood in recent months. 

At her first public comments since accusing film producer Harvey Weinstein of rape, McGowan said she has been "silenced for 20 years" but won't remain quiet about sexual assault and harassment.

On Twitter, McGowan has amassed supporters and urged them to call out harassment using the #RoseArmy hashtag. McGowan has starred in several films, including "Scream," ''Jawbreaker," and "Planet Terror," as well as the early 2000s television series "Charmed."

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