‘I WON!’: Rose McGowan claims victory in defamation suit from cocaine case lawyer Jose Baez, who went on to rep Harvey Weinstein
Rose McGowan is declaring victory over Jose Baez, the high-profile lawyer who sued her for defamation after she claimed he mishandled her cocaine case to help Harvey Weinstein.
Baez sued McGowan and her Chicago-based lawyer Julie B. Porter in January, but a Cook County judge dismissed the case and took it off calendar this week, sources confirmed.
“I WON!” McGowan said in Instagram post Thursday.
“He was suing me for defamation because I called him a Rat F---er. Luckily, the judge could find no legal definition for the term Rat F---er and was clearly not impressed by his double dealing,” she wrote.
A lawyer representing Baez said Thursday that the judge “made a factual error in his ruling.”
“We are contemplating filing an appeal,” Joe Tacopina told the Daily News.
“The fact of the matter is, the judge did not say what McGowan said was factually correct, just that it was protected opinion, and I would add that it is an opinion of a convicted criminal who tries to stay relevant by baselessly attacking others,” he said.
Baez, 49, claimed in his complaint that McGowan, 46, “concocted a malicious scheme to salvage (her) reputation” by repeatedly suggesting he pressured her into pleading no contest in her drug case as he was joining the defense team on Weinstein’s New York rape case.
McGowan, an early Weinstein accuser, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drug charge in January 2019 after Virginia prosecutors filed a felony case against her January 2017.
According to prosecutors, McGowan flew into Washington Dulles International Airport from Los Angeles the night of Jan. 20, 2017 and left her black Chanel wallet behind on the floor by her first-class seat.
The wallet was discovered by someone cleaning the plane, and when it was checked for owner identification, two small plastic bags containing cocaine were found, prosecutors said.
In her Instagram statement Thursday, McGowan maintained her innocence in the cocaine bust, saying the wallet had been stolen from her backpack on her way to a publicized appearance – and when it turned up days later, the bags of cocaine allegedly found inside had no fingerprints on them.
The actress, author and #MeToo activist has stated repeatedly that she believes someone working for Weinstein planted the drugs to harm her credibility.
A post shared by Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) on Aug 13, 2020 at 11:59am PDT
“They got me on planes because I can’t use a fake name when flying. I was facing TEN YEARS on a felony charge in Virginia. TEN YEARS. This was during the period where EVERY PART OF MY LIFE was infiltrated by Israeli and British spies hired by the Monster (Weinstein),” McGowan wrote Thursday.
She posted a photo of her Virginia mug shot and ended the post by saying, “So. I won. Hahaha.”