Winona Ryder Heads to Preliminary Trial

B E V E R L Y   H I L L S, Calif., June 3 -- Winona Ryder's preliminary hearing was delayed after she told the judge she was hit on the arm by a news photographer's camera on the way into a courthouse swarming with reporters.

The prosecution had already begun presenting its case, calling the manager of the Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. The hearing will determine whether there's enough evidence to try the two-time Oscar nominee.

"At this point in time, I'm advised there is some swelling,"Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox said, adding that Ryder would beseen by a physician.

The judge seemed irked with Ryder in the morning, after he learned that she was late.

"I want your client here, so call her," Fox told Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos. Her preliminary hearing had been postponed four times since Ryder's arrest.

Ryder was arrested for allegedly shoplifting nearly $4,800 in clothing last December. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance, the painkiller Oxycodone. She has been free on $20,000 bail.

Saks Manager Testifies

When the 30-year-old actress arrived, about an hour late, she declined to speak to reporters when she arrived, wearing a cream coat and matching hair band, taking a seat before prosecutors called their first witness.

As she fought through the throngs of reporters at the courthouse, she said, "Just trying to get through."

As the session began, the judge rejected Geragos' bid to disqualify the prosecutor and close the hearing over out-of-court statements that the Los Angles Country District Attorney's Office had an "ax to grind" against Ryder.

Kenneth Evans, a security manager for Saks, testified that Ryder was trackedon video camera as she shopped for designer clothes. He said security personnel watched as Ryder walked through the store with a pile of clothes on one hand, at one point going into a fitting room and emerging no longer plainly in possession of items.

He said Ryder first caught the attention of store security officers because she was carrying multiple items of merchandise and bags while selecting other items and holding them in her hand.