HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Bai Ling says that her arrest last month was an “innocent mistake” and she’s thankful to only have been charged with petty theft.
“I am relieved that the prosecutor has decided not to file misdemeanor charges against me and to treat this matter as an infraction,” Ling wrote on her blog. “What happened was an innocent mistake on my part and I am confident that the truth will be told since I never had any intention of taking items without paying for them.”
The 37-year-old Ling was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport when she allegedly walked out of a gift shop with two celebrity magazines and a pack of batteries (valued at $16) without paying.
Ling was planning to fly to New Mexico to shoot her upcoming film “Love Ranch” and blamed the Valentine’s Day blues for her arrest. She told E! News, “It was an “emotionally crazy” day, explaining she was dealing with the “huge problem of breaking up [before] Valentine’s Day.”
Since coming to the United States from her native China in 1991, Ling has appeared in a number of American movies, first appearing in the 1994 film “The Crow.”
