Actress Rose McGowan Indicted For Cocaine Possession At Dulles

LEESBURG, VA — Actress and activist Rose McGowan was indicted Monday on one felony count of cocaine possession. McGowan faces drug charges stemming from a January incident in which she allegedly had cocaine in her wallet when she disembarked from a United Airlines flight at Dulles International Airport.

The maximum sentence for the charge is 10 years in prison. McGowan's trial date will be set Tuesday at the Loudoun County courthouse, WTOP reports. She has repeatedly denied the accusation.

McGowan landed at Dulles in January on a United flight from Los Angeles. When the post-flight cleaning crew found her wallet, it had two small bags filled with what allegedly tested positive as cocaine.

Jessica Carmichael, another of McGowan's attorneys, said there is "no evidence" that McGowan was aware of the cocaine. They suggest that the cocaine may have been planted by an agent of Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer McGowan accuses of sexually assaulting her.

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Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Rebecca Thacher and Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert are prosecuting the case. Thacher suggested that McGowan would have picked up her wallet from police if she didn't know about the cocaine inside.

"We charged the owner of the wallet. She admitted she lost her wallet. When she was told it was at the police station, she all of a sudden didn't want to pick it up," Thacher said.

While he is the main target of the #MeToo activist movement, Weinstein claims all sexual encounters between him and McGowan were consensual.

A Manhattan grand jury indicted the disgraced movie mogul on sex crime charges late last month. Weinstein is charged with two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act stemming from two incidents nine years apart, according to the indictment.

"This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.

Weinstein was arrested and arraigned amid a continuing investigation into his alleged sex crimes. Published allegations that Weinstein raped, assaulted and harassed dozens of women over the course of his career as an acclaimed film producer helped spark the #MeToo movement.

See more:

• Rose McGowan To Face Trial For Cocaine Charges: Judge
• Rose McGowan Claims Drugs Were Planted On Her At Dulles Airport
• Harvey Weinstein Indicted On Sex Crime Charges, DA Says

PHOTO: Artist/Activist/Executive producer Rose McGowan of 'Citizen Rose' on E! speaks onstage during the NBCUniversal portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 9, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)