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Django Unchained Star To Say Sorry To Police After Lewd Conduct Case

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An actress who starred in ‘Django Unchained’ has been told to say sorry to police after she accused them of racial profiling when they arrested her for allegedly having sex with her boyfriend in a car park last year.

Daniele Watts claimed that officers were racially profiling her and her white boyfriend Brian James Lucas during the incident in Los Angeles last September.

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But now she will have to say sorry to the officers involved as part of a deal, after she pleaded no contest to 'disturbing the peace with loudness’.

The charges of lewd behaviour were dropped.

Both Watts and Lucas will serve 40 hours of community service, and must write letters to three officers and the occupants of a nearby building.

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It was initially reported last year that Watts, who played Coco in the Quentin Tarantino movie, had been arrested after being mistaken for a prostitute in Studio City, Los Angeles.

“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 in a Facebook post after the incident.

“When the officer arrived, I was standing on the sidewalk by a tree. I was talking to my father on my cellphone. I knew that I had done nothing wrong, that I wasn’t harming anyone, so I walked away. A few minutes later, I was still talking to my dad when 2 different police officers accosted me and forced me into handcuffs.

She posted pictures of herself in distress, and said that her wrist was 'bleeding in pain’ from the handcuffs.

“As I was sitting in the back of the police car, I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong,’ she went on.

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“I felt his shame, his anger, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that 'authority figures’ could control my BEING … my ability to BE!!!!!!!”

However, the LAPD officer who was involved, Sgt Jim Parker, later accused her of lying, and 'making malicious and false statements’.

He claimed that the couple were having sex in a car park, and was called to the scene after a call describing what was going on from someone at the Art Directors Guild office.

He said at least one person had taken a photo of the couple, adding that 'People don’t make this sh*t up’.

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“People having sex in the car, no biggie. No one wants to arrest anybody,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, but Watts accused attending police of racial profiling and the situation escalated, resulting in the arrest of Watts and Lucas.

Civil rights groups like Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable and Project Islamic Hope who had initially come to her defence later demanded that she apologise, saying that her claims were like 'crying wolf’.

Lou Shapiro, who represented the couple, admitted that Watts 'wishes she hadn’t said some of the things she said’ to police during the incident.

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Image credits: AP