A lawyer for Django Unchained actress Daniele Watts and her boyfriend, Brian Lucas, appeared on their behalf and entered pleas of not guilty to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct, the Associated Press reports.
The lawyer, Lou Shapiro, entered the pleas in court Tuesday, but neither Watts nor Lucas was present, the report says. Their case will be called again Feb. 23.
Watts and Lucas were charged in October after briefly being detained in September by Los Angeles police investigating a report of lewd conduct in a parked Mercedes-Benz car, the report notes.
Watts sparked an uproar when she claimed she had been a victim of racial profiling. She said she and her boyfriend were only kissing in their car, AP writes. But witnesses said there was a lot more going on than that. Someone thought she was a prostitute and called the police in response to the activity in the car, the report says.
Police denied racially profiling Watts, saying the officer at the scene followed proper protocol for the incident, AP writes. The allegation of racial profiling may have backfired on Watts, who in turn was accused of race-baiting.
Read more at the New York Post.