Girlicious Singer Pleads Not Guilty To Coke Charge

Don’t you hate it when cocaine mysteriously ends up in your purse and you don’t even know it’s there until the police tell you?

Girlicious member Natalie Nicole Mejia appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday and pleaded not guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to sell.

Photo: AP Photo
Attending the 2009 Teen Choice Awards in Universal City, California.

Mejia was arrested March 9 after the car she was riding in was pulled over for speeding in Glendale. Police eventually searched the car, discovering more than a dozen bags containing the drug in her Gucci purse. But Mejia didn’t spend too much time in custody and posted $30,000 bail the day after the arrest.

So far, Mejia, who was arrested along with the car’s driver, Peter Asencio of Burbank, is sticking to her original story claiming she didn’t know her purse was filled with cocaine. Along with being charged with possession with intent to sell, Asencio was charged with driving without a license.

At the time of Mejia’s arrest, a Glendale police officer was quoted in the Los Angeles Times making the arrest sound as if it was just another day in Southern California.

“You see this day in and day out,’ Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. “I certainly hope that drugs are not a part of her life, because drugs, quicker than anything else, will destroy a person’s career, their family and their life. I hope there’s an awakening if she’s not culpable for those drugs.”