Daniele Watts: ‘Django Unchained’ Actress Sentenced To Community Service

Daniele Watts, the Django Unchained actress, has been sentenced to 15 hours of community service, ending a year-long court battle after she and her boyfriend Brian Lucas were accused of having sex in public.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, officers from the LAPD were called to an area near CBS studios, where witnesses claim the couple was having sex in their vehicle. When the officers arrived at the scene, they questioned Watts and Lucas about their lewd behavior. Watts immediately became belligerent and started accusing the officers of racial profiling because she was kissing her white boyfriend. Because she refused to provide identification to the police, she was briefly handcuffed and detained.

“I know my rights… I played a cop on TV, and I know when somebody asks for your ID, you’re not required to give it,” Watts told the officers.

“Actually that’s wrong, that’s not right,” one cop replied, according to the New York Daily News. “I’m being very calm. I’m not being an a— to you.”

“You’re not the one who’s in handcuffs,” Watts responded. “You’re not the one who’s spent your life being called a N—– and growing up in the south, and now I get the cops called on me.”

“I’m an actress at this studio, do you understand that?” Daniele said.

“I don’t know that. I’ll find that out, but let me –” the officer said before being cut off.

“I’m on a major sitcom right now, and I’m still getting put in handcuffs because I’m making out with my boyfriend in a public space,” Watts said through tears.

As part of a plea deal, Daniele Watts offered no contest to a charge of disturbing the peace in exchange for the initial charge of lewd conduct being dropped on May 4. The judge also told the actress, who has starred in television shows Weeds and Partners, that she and Lucas could avoid all punishments if she would write a letter to the LAPD officer who arrested her, the one she accused of racial profiling.

Although she originally refused to write the letter, Watts eventually agreed and penned a letter to the officer. She turned in the letter on August 6, however, the judge called it “defiant and accusatory,” and asked her to write another one.

“Hopefully you can forgive the fact that my heightened emotions disturbed what might have otherwise been a carefree stop on your way to a nice cup of coffee. With all the recent news coverage on the issue of biased policing, we probably all have a clearer understanding of the subtle – and often bizarre – ways that racial conflict continues to haunt many people in America. Sgt. Parker, when you said sarcastically, ‘Thank you for bringing up the race card, I never hear that,’ I felt provoked because I had previously encountered many disheartening experiences related to ‘being black’ both in my personal life, and as reflected in society overall.”

Watts turned the second letter into the judge on August 26, but he again found the letter to not be good enough, referring to it as “insincere and passive aggressive.” Rather than giving her a third chance to write an appropriate letter, the judge handed out her and Lucas a sentence of 15 hours of community service.

The arresting officer, Officer Parker, was asked to attend a disciplinary hearing but chose to retire instead, effectively ending his 26-year career.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]