“Django Unchained” actress Danièle Watts says she was accosted by police and handcuffed on Thursday in Los Angeles after being mistaken for a prostitute.
Watts, who played house slave “CoCo” in “Django” and is Martin Lawrence’s daughter on the new FX comedy “Partners,” shared the news on Facebook.
“Today I was handcuffed and detained by 2 police officers from the Studio City Police Department after refusing to agree that I had done something wrong by showing affection, fully clothed, in a public place,” she wrote.
Watts also posted a picture of herself sobbing as she stood in front of an officer in shorts, a t-shirt and running shoes.
An LAPD public information officer said there was no record of the incident as Watts wasn’t arrested or brought into the station for questioning.
According to Watts and her husband Brian James Lucas, Studio City police mistook the couple for a prostitute and john after they showed public displays of affection. Watts refused to show her ID to the cops, and was therefore handcuffed and seated in the back of their car until they could figure out who she was. They let her go quickly afterward.
UPDATE: Los Angeles police responded to the incident in a statement on Sunday, saying that they were responding to a complaint that a man and woman were involved in indecent exposure in a silver Mercedes with the door open.
According to the LA Times, a sergeant and officers responded to the call and “located two individuals that matched the description of the suspects, and they were briefly detained,” said authorities.
“Upon further investigation it was determined that no crime had been committed,” police said in a statement. “Ms. Watts and her companion were subsequently released.”
