Winona Ryder Heads to Preliminary Trial
B E V E R L Y H I L L S, Calif., June 3, 2002 -- 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.
Ryder on Stage: 'People Have Been Acting Strange'
Ryder has made a few well-placed public comments about her situation in the last few months. The star graces the latest cover of W magazine wearing a "Free Winona" T-shirt like those being sold by street vendors in Hollywood.
As she recently hosted the season finale of Saturday Night Live, the actress made jokes about her highly publicized arrest.
"You know, people have been acting a little strange around here," Ryder joked on NBC's Saturday Night Live. "You know, there's, like, a lot of, like, locking of doors and shifting eyes and a lot of frisking."
Ryder rocketed into the upper echelons of show business in the late 1980s with her roles in Heathers and Beetlejuice. Ryder was nominated for Oscars for 1993's The Age of Innocence and 1994's Little Women. She also starred in Girl, Interrupted.
Caught on Tape?
A store surveillance tape shows the star browsing through Saks on Dec. 12, but whether or not the tape shows her shoplifting has been disputed.
At the time charges were filed, the district attorney's office quoted police as saying Ryder had been seen on a closed-circuit camera using scissors to clip security tags from merchandise. But Ryder's lawyer told The Orlando Sentinel that there's nothing incriminating on the tape.
"Contrary to the public perception, this tape exonerates her," Geragos told the newspaper in March. "I'd say this is a prosecution, interrupted."
ABCNEWS' Senior Legal Correspondent Cynthia McFadden said Ryder was discovered outside the store in December with merchandise in her possession for which she had no receipts. Store security guards also say they witnessed Ryder shoplifting.
When it comes to the tape, McFadden says it may not be the strongest piece of evidence in the prosecution's case.
"The tape had been advertised, at least in some venues, as very damaging, conclusive evidence that she indeed had in fact shoplifted. That doesn't seem to be there," McFadden said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
If the judge decides there is enough evidence for Ryder to go to trial, she could face up to three years and eight months in prison if convicted, but she could also be sentenced to probation.