Django Unchained actress charged with lewd behavior

The Django Unchained actress who claimed she was arrested by police who mistook her for a prostitute has been charged with lewd conduct for allegedly having sex in her car.

Daniele Watts, an African American actress who played a slave named Coco in the award-winning film, accused the LAPD of racism after they were called to investigate claims of lewd behaviour in public.

Members of the public had reportedly phoned to police to report a man and a woman having sex in a Mercedes outside CBS Studios.

At the time Watts claimed she and her boyfriend were just "kissing" and attempted to walk away from police without handing over her ID prompting officers to handcuff and detain her.

Watts took to social media following the incident to voice her concerns:

"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 on her Facebook wall.

Pictures later emerged showing what appeared to be Watts straddling her boyfriend half-naked in their car casting doubt on her original claims.

The couple have now been charged with misdemeanour lewd conduct which carries a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.