Quentin Tarantino Lied About Doing Jail Time, Says The New York Post

With new film "The Hateful Eight" set to debut in a few weeks, Quentin Tarantino is making his media rounds by elaborating on his police brutality comments that stirred up a controversy in late October. Echoing claims he's made for decades, Tarantino has continued sharing an anecdote about spending time in a Los Angeles County jail -- giving him firsthand experience with police. But, according to The New York Post, that never happened.

The Post claims that a weeklong investigation into the director's rap sheet revealed no such record. "A check of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department jail records revealed no evidence that Mr. Tarantino was ever incarcerated in our jail system," Capt. Christopher Reed of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office told the Post.

Of course, it's not impossible that the evidence Reed's office searched for had been lost or misplaced since the '80s, when Tarantino claims he served time. But it's not a great sign.

The director most recently told the story in an interview with Bill Maher. "Back when I was in my 20s and broke, I was a little scared of cops, all right?" he said, explaining how he'd spent eight days in jail as punishment for neglecting to pay various fines back when his salary supposedly hovered around $10,000.

The Post, which hasn't exactly stayed neutral on what it calls Tarantino's "anti-cop comments," claims the director's only brush with Los Angeles police was a 2000 fine for driving without a license.

So, is Quentin Tarantino actually a hardened criminal, or is that about as real as Brian Williams' downed helicopter?

The Huffington Post has contacted a representative of the director, but did not hear back by time of publication.

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