Rose McGowan agrees to plea deal, avoids jail for 2017 drug charge

LEESBURG, Va. — Actress and activist Rose McGowan has avoided jail time, pleading no contest for a reduced for a drug charge stemming from her arrest at Dulles International Airport in January 2017, WTOP reported. McGowan left some personal items behind when she got off of a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to the D.C.-area airport.

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Plane-cleaning crews found cocaine in her wallet, which was found under her seat. A warrant for McGowan’s arrest was obtained by authorities Feb. 1, 2017.

McGowan turned herself in to authorities months later, in November 2017. She told The New Yorker in November 2017 that she avoided turning her self in out of fear and doubt, having said Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had people following her after she accused him of raping her months before.

"I was going to asap, but then things started to get really weird." McGowan told Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker, "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."

WTOP reported that, since her arrest, McGowan and her team have indicated that someone working for Weinstein may have planted the drugs on her personal items. Her attorneys have not provided independent proof of that claim.

Weinstein has denied sexual assault and abuse allegations. He is facing five felony charges in New York, including predatory sexual assault and rape, for allegedly assaulting two women, CNN reported. Weinstein has said any sexual relationships he's had have all been consensual.

McGowan agreed to pay a $2,500 fine plea deal to possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor charge. She was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

“Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war, and I’m in it for the long haul and that’s what’s going on,” she said. “Once you get tangled in the legal system, it’s very hard to get out of it, and sometimes you just take what you can get, and hope for the best. It’s caused a lot of stress and I just wanted it to be over … however it ended.”

Cox Media Group