Actress Rose McGowan has been formally indicted by a grand jury for possession of cocaine and could potentially face 10 years behind bars for her actions, according to some sources.
The former Charmed star, 44, was arrested back in November of last year after two small bags of cocaine were allegedly found in a wallet that she left on a plane at Dulles Airport, Washington DC. At the time, McGowan claims that she was framed by spies who she believed were working for disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein - the man who she accused of raping her.
"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," attorney Jim Hundley wrote in a memorandum to the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman, asking that the charges be dismissed.
Weinstein, 66, denies all of the accusations aimed at him by various women, and has previously been accused of hiring private investigators to smear victims into keeping quiet.
McGowan's Lawyer, Jose Beez, told People magazine that;
"Rose steadfastly maintains her innocence.
"These charges would never have been brought if it weren't for her activism as a voice for women everywhere."
Speaking to the New Yorker, McGowan claims that she felt like she was being followed when her arrest warrant was issued and decided not to turn herself in right away while she acted on her fears.
"I was going to asap," McGowan said of the decision to turn herself in, "but then 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."
"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.
McGowan first made the claims regarding her arrest warrant last month, when she tweeted:
"Are they trying to silence me?"
She added: "I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn't been proven. I said I was the proof."
The actress turned herself in to Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, in Virginia, and was freed on $5,000 bail.
McGowan concedes that she has used drugs in the past. "I own stock in a marijuana company, so that’s my jam," she said (McGowan’s medical-marijuana card was in the wallet when police recovered it). However, she disputes that, at the time of the Women’s March, she had no interest in taking any amount of 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."
McGowan vowed to continue her advocacy for victims of sexual assault in the wake of the controversy, and the trial is expected to continue.
