Will Not-My-Bag Defense Work? Paris' Purse Pic Could Be Her Undoing

Chanel bag Hilton posted online this summer seems identical to bag she wore the night of her cocaine bust—and the bag she claimed wasn't hers

That sound you hear? That's the sound of an alibi unraveling.

Cast your minds back to, um, five whole days ago, when Paris Hilton was busted for cocaine possession. Her excuse? Those weren't her drugs (she thought it was gum!), that wasn't her purse (too cheap!) and the dog ate her homework.

Now try if you can to cast your mind back to a month and a half ago, when Paris posted a twitpic of a Chanel purse she had just purchased—a purse which certainly looks identical to the handbag she was apparently carrying at the time of her arrest.

So what does it all mean?

That things aren't exactly coming up roses for the heiress.

While the Clark County District Attorney's office told E! News that the type of purse she was carrying that night was not listed in any report, there's really no denying the photos.

Not that it may end up mattering all that much, anyway.

Possession, in this case, may add up to being slightly more than 9/10s of the law.

"She's being charged with possession, so it doesn't matter if it's hers or someone else's," Las Vegas police spokesman Officer Jay Rivera told E! News. "She's the person in possession of it, so it doesn't matter."

Rivera also noted that this case, despite its high profile, was not treated any different than normally—which means cops did not confiscate the offending Chanel (the fashion police, on the other hand, may want to take a closer look).

"This is a common typical arrest. We don't keep track of people's purses and we don't impound people's purses when we find evidence or contraband in them."

Criminal defense attorney Alec Rose, who is not involved in Paris' case, went one further.

"In my 17 years of practicing criminal defense law, I have never heard of the 'it's not my handbag defense' actually working," he told E! News. "If it is in the handbag you are using, it is a pretty hard one to explain."

Paris, meanwhile, is laying low, albeit not online. Some people never learn.

In the past few days, Hilton seems to have stayed busy by hanging out at home, not only with boyfriend and fellow arrestee Cy Waits, but with sister Nicky Hilton and her beau David Katzenberg.

And judging by the number of Paris-centric fan sites she's linked on her Twitter page recently, it appears any time not spent with friends and family has been logged with her good friend, Google alert.

Nice to know some things will never change.

—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum