Rose McGowan to plead not guilty; worried Weinstein spies were involved in planting drugs

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Actress Rose McGowan booked for felony On Tuesday, actress Rose McGowan turned herself in to police for felony possession of a controlled substance.

Rose McGowan was arrested and released in Virginia Tuesday after turning herself in on a months-old arrest warrant for felony drug possession stemming from a flight she took to Washington Dulles International Airport in January.

Kraig Troxell, a spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office in northern Virginia, confirmed that McGowan turned herself in, was placed under arrest, booked, photographed and then released on $5,000 bond.

McGowan, 44, reported to the airport authority police, who issued an arrest warrant on Feb. 1 for felony possession of a controlled substance after personal items McGowan left behind on a Jan. 20 United Airlines flight to Dulles allegedly tested positive for narcotics.

It's unclear why it took nearly nine months for the warrant to come to light but it did so just after McGowan took a central role as an outspoken accuser of fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein: She says he raped her during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.

Although she accepted a settlement from Weinstein and agreed not to disclose details, she has since become one of the leading voices against sexual harassment-and-assault in Hollywood since the Weinstein scandal broke on Oct. 5.

When news emerged late last month about the arrest warrant, she reacted angrily, posting an outraged tweet suggesting it was an attempt to silence her.

She told Ronan Farrow in an interview published in The New Yorker Tuesday she intended to turn herself in "ASAP,” but hesitated when "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."

Though McGowan said that she has stock in a marijuana company, she said she had no intention of using cocaine during her trip for the Women's March. "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 said.

She and attorney Jim Hundley told Farrow that the cocaine could have been planted in her wallet after it went missing on her Jan. 20 flight into Dulles International Airport.

She told Farrow, "I will clearly plead not guilty.”

Only days before the warrant's existence became known, McGowan addressed the Women's Convention in Detroit, urging sexual-assault victims to name and shame their attackers.

Who has accused Harvey Weinstein?: Harvey Weinstein scandal: A complete list of the 79 accusers