Actress Daniele Watts was detained by police Thursday and alleges that they mistook her for a prostitute.
The Django Unchained actress says two Studio City police officers handcuffed and detained her after she refused to show her ID. Both Watts and her boyfriend, celebrity chef Brian James Lucas, posted about the incident (including photos) on social media.
“I knew that I had done nothing wrong, that I wasn’t harming anyone, so I walked away,” wrote the actress on Facebook. “A few minutes later, I was still talking to my dad when 2 different police officers accosted me and forced me into handcuffs.”
Like Watts, Lucus posted on social media that he believed the officers thought she was a “ho.” He later told Buzzfeed that the police “never explicitly called Watts a prostitute” but rather asked loaded questions, like if he “really knew her” and more.
The LAPD dispute the characterization of events, with a spokesperson telling CNN that officers from the North Hollywood precinct were simply responding to a citizen complaint that “a male white and female black were involved in a sexual act inside a Mercedes with the vehicle door open.”
The officers eventually released Watts after putting her in the back of a police car. The couple is in talks with lawyers and the NAACP about the events.
UPDATE: TMZ posted an audio recording of the incident. Listen to it here.
