Rose McGowan speaks out after her arrest
Actress says she was a victim of a setup and will plead not guilty.
— -- After turning herself in to face a felony drug charge, Rose McGowan has claimed that she is a victim of a setup and will plead not guilty.
Speaking to The New Yorker after her arrest, McGowan said, "I will clearly plead not guilty."
McGowan, 44, who will be arraigned Thursday, and her lawyer are arguing that drugs found in her wallet, which was left behind on a flight to Washington Dulles International Airport in January, could have been planted.
"Depending on when and where the wallet was lost, individuals other than Ms. McGowan had access to the wallet for somewhere between approximately 5 hours 40 minutes and more than 11 hours," McGowan's lawyer Jim W. Hundley wrote in a memorandum to Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman obtained by The New Yorker. In the memo, Hundley asked that the charges be dismissed.
Her lawyer did not respond immediately to ABC News' request for comment.
McGowan faces a felony charge for possession of a controlled substance.
On Tuesday night she turned herself in to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office in Virginia and was released on a $5,000 secured bond.
In a statement last month, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department said, "The felony charge stems from a police investigation of personal belongings that tested positive for narcotics and were left behind on United flight 653 arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport on Jan. 20, 2017."
According to the statement, the department obtained an arrest warrant for McGowan on Feb. 1 and attempted to contact her so that she could appear in court to respond to the charge. The warrant was later entered into a national law enforcement database, the statement said.
The actress told The New Yorker she didn't respond to the warrant for months out of fear that she was being followed by private investigators hired by Harvey Weinstein.
McGowan is one of several women claiming that she was sexually assaulted by the former media mogul and has since become one of the leading voices against sexual harassment in Hollywood.
Through his rep, Weinstein has "unequivocally denied" any "allegations of nonconsensual sex."
Last month, McGowan revealed on Twitter that she was facing a warrant for her arrest.
"Are they trying to silence me?" she tweeted on Oct. 30, calling the arrest a "load of horses---."
McGowan told The New Yorker that during the flight she never removed her wallet from her backpack, which she left on the seat while she went to the lavatory. It was while waiting for a car service outside the airport that she realized her wallet was gone, she said.