LEGAL FILE

Actor Timothy Bottoms, arrested last week on suspicion of threatening a motorist with a gun while driving in Ventura, says he did not wave the gun as accused, but merely had it on the passenger seat. The gun’s shaft was unloaded, but bullets were in a console nearby, which according to a new law is tantamount to the gun being loaded. “I am guilty of definitely having the bullets within reach of the weapon,” he said in a telephone interview. “And there was a weapon in my car. Those are the facts . . . but . . . I did not touch the pistol. I didn’t do anything wrong except not be aware of the new law.” Bottoms, 37, allegedly brandished a .22-caliber pistol after he and the driver of a pickup became involved in an altercation due to “discourteous or possibly unsafe driving,” a California Highway Patrol spokesman said. The actor was arrested about 15 minutes later heading north on the freeway toward Santa Barbara after the other driver, Frank Harwood, 38, called police from his car phone. Bottoms, released on $5,000 bail, is being investigated for brandishing a firearm on a roadway, a felony, and carrying a loaded weapon, a misdemeanor.