Global News

Tuesday August 31, 2010

By KEN RITTERAssociated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Paris Hilton had an explanation for police: the rolling papers, $1,300 in cash and several credit cards were hers, but not the purse they were in.

And definitely not the bag of white powder that fell out of it.

Believing it to be cocaine, an officer asked her who it belonged to.

"She said she had not seen it but now thought it was gum," Las Vegas police Lt. Dennis Flynn wrote in a report made public on Monday.

Hilton told police the purse belonged to a friend. But the friend was never identified.

The 29-year-old celebrity socialite was charged with cocaine possession. She was freed without bail before dawn Saturday after spending less than three hours handcuffed on a jailhouse booking room bench.

Hilton's lawyer, David Chesnoff, said he would not comment on the police report, and added, "the facts of the situation will be tested in a courtroom."

Flynn said Hilton acknowledged also owning a broken tablet of the prescription asthma medication Albuterol found in the purse she took with her into a security room at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Flynn said Hilton had asked to be allowed to go into the hotel after her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, 34, failed field sobriety tests given by a motorcycle officer.

The couple had been stopped in a black Cadillac Escalade after the officer smelled a "vapor trail" of marijuana smoke. Police have not said whether marijuana was found in the vehicle.

Flynn said Hilton denied owning a small plastic "bindle" containing 0.8 grams of cocaine that the police lieutenant said fell out when Hilton opened the purse to get a tube of lip balm.

Flynn said that while Hilton was in the Escalade, she told him she was "extremely embarrassed, due to all the people taking pictures of her," and asked to go inside the Wynn resort to use a bathroom.

Flynn estimated the crowd at about 100 people.

Several photos apparently snapped with cell phone cameras have been posted on at least one Internet site showing Hilton with police at the Escalade on the neon-splashed Strip.

Las Vegas police do not have cameras on patrol vehicle dashboards.

Flynn said Hilton was taken to a security holding room inside Wynn to await the arrival of a female officer to accompany her to a rest room.

"Hilton said she needed to put some lip balm on, and I handed her the purse from the table," Flynn wrote. "As she began to open it, I saw a small bindle of what I believed to be cocaine in clear plastic baggy begin to fall from the purse and into my hand."

Hilton briefly faced a marijuana charge last month after a FIFA World Cup match in South Africa, but the case against her was dropped after a woman who was with her pleaded guilty to possessing the drug.

Hilton is scheduled for arraignment before a Las Vegas judge Oct. 27 on a felony cocaine possession charge that could get her probation if convicted.

A violation of that probation could be punishable by up to one to four years in Nevada state prison.

Waits, 34, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He spent the night in jail before he was released on $2,000 bail with a Nov. 29 court date.

Waits is managing partner of the Tryst Nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas, XS the Nightclub at Wynn's Encore resort, and Drai's after-hours club at Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon.

He declined comment Monday when reached by the associated Press. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a message.

Associated Press entertainment writer Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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