'Django Unchained' Actress Daniele Watts Charged With Lewd Conduct

David Livingston/Getty Images

???Django Unchained" actress Daniele Watts and her boyfriend have been charged with lewd conduct stemming from an incident last month when the couple was found in a parked car having a romantic encounter.

The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed the misdemeanor charge today against Watts and her companion, celebrity chef Brian Lucas. The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in the county jail and a $1,000 fine.

'Django Unchained' Actress Daniele Watts Describes LAPD Handcuffing

Reps for Watts did not respond immediately to ABC News' request for comment.

The 28-year-old actress was handcuffed and detained by Los Angeles police Sept. 11 after the LAPD responded to a 911 call for alleged "indecent exposure" involving a male and a female inside a silver Mercedes with the vehicle door open.

At the time of the incident, Watts and Lucas maintained they had done nothing illegal and questioned whether the incident was racial profiling.

According to the police report from the incident, "The responding sergeant and police officers located two individuals that matched the description of the suspects, and they were briefly detained. Upon further investigation it was determined that no crime had been committed. Ms. Watts and her companion were subsequently released."

The City Attorney's office did not state in its court papers today what led them to press the charges.

"In my opinion, it's not a crime to be fully clothed, showing affection in a public street in our own car," Watts told CNN. "It doesn't matter how passionately we were making out."

Lucas added during the interview, "[The officer] was definitely edging me on. He asked me questions. … It just made me feel like I was a client and she was prostitute."

The Los Angeles Police Department noted in its Sept. 14 release that "an internal complaint investigation has been initiated regarding this matter." The LA Times reported that "the LAPD launched an internal affairs inquiry into the officers' actions after Watts and Lucas complained publicly. Lucas wrote on Facebook that police acted as if the couple had been engaged in prostitution."

In an L.A. Times op-ed piece, Watts wrote that she and Lucas had been stopped four times by law enforcement since late spring. Watts is black and Lucas is white.

"Would someone have called the police if it had been a white couple?" she wrote. "Would the sergeant have been so zealous in 'investigating' what was clearly not a crime? Does bias have something to do with how and why Brian and I have been stopped this year? I think it probably does."

A hearing date for the misdemeanor has been set for Nov. 13.