Ryder faces community service after shoplifting spree
Actress Winona Ryder was today facing the prospect of community service after being convicted of shoplifting.
The star could face three years in state prison after she was found guilty of grand theft for stealing more than €7,000 worth of designer merchandise from a posh department store.
But prosecutors have no desire to see the 31-year-old put behind bars.
Ann Rundle, the prosecutor who won the conviction, said she would be asking the judge to sentence Ryder to probation and community service.
She also wants the actress to pay compensation to Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills for the goods she stole and vandalised during her shoplifting spree last December 12.
Ms Rundle said: “This case was never about jail time. We will not be asking for any jail time. We are simply asking for Winona Ryder to take responsibility for her conduct.”
In a statement, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Colley said he hoped the millionaire actress would get help for the problems which led her to shoplift.
He said: “It is the hope of this office that the court addresses the problems of the defendant that may have led her to engage in the criminal conduct of which she now stands convicted.”
At Beverly Hills Superior Court yesterday, Ryder was found guilty of grand theft and vandalism but cleared of second degree burglary.
The burglary charge required proof the actress had deliberately gone to the store with intent to steal.
Ms Rundle said she was “comfortable” with the jury’s verdict, adding: “We knew this was difficult because we did not know at exactly what time she entered the store and she made a purchase soon after arriving.”
She thanked the jury of six men and six women, who included former Sony Pictures studio head Peter Gruber and at least two others with Hollywood connections for their attention during the lengthy trial.
The jurors, who heard six days of evidence, spent nearly six hours in deliberations before returning their verdicts.
Ryder, wearing a maroon coat, sat wide-eyed and stone-faced as the clerk read out the decision but appeared tearful a few moments later. She left court without speaking to reporters and her lawyer Mark Geragos says she will not talk until after her sentencing.
The star, who was supported in court by friends and family including her father Mike Horowitz, her brother Uri, her publicist Mara Bauxbaum and her agent Ed Limato, must return to court on Friday December 6 to be sentenced by trial judge Elden Fox.
Ryder was convicted after the jury heard she shoplifted for the “sheer thrill” of it.
Ms Rundle said the star, who can command about €9m a movie, stole the designer goods simply to see if she could get away with it.
Throughout the trial, Ms Rundle insisted it was “a simple case of theft”.
“She came, she stole, she left – end of story,” Ms Rundle told the jury in her closing argument.
The court heard how Ryder arrived at Saks for a pre-Christmas shopping trip.
She bought four items but stole 20 more including designer hats, tops, socks, bags and hair accessories ranging in price from €15 to €750.
She also stole a white Gucci dress worth just more than €1,500.
She spent more than one-and-a-half hours in total at the store and a security video tape seen by the jury showed her wandering around, picking up armfuls of designer clothing.
She caught the attention of Saks’ security boss Kenneth Evans, when she knelt down and stuffed various hair accessories and socks inside a hat she was carrying.
At this point, Ms Rundle said: “Ryder didn’t look like a glamorous movie star, she looked like someone preparing to shoplift.”
His suspicions alerted, Mr Evans and his staff continued to monitor Ryder via security cameras.
The most damning evidence came from security officer Colleen Rainey who spied on the actress after she took Saks merchandise and several shopping bags into a changing room.
Ms Rainey watched through the slats of the fitting room door as the actress cut sensor tags off two handbags and other goods.
She saw Ryder wrap various items, including socks and hair accessories, in tissue paper, before stuffing them in her bags.
Ryder was apprehended after she walked out of the store with the stolen merchandise.
She told one security officer she thought her assistant had paid for the goods. But no assistant was ever seen on the security video.
And once brought back inside the store, Ryder’s story changed.
She apologised to staff and said she had been shoplifting as research for a film role.
Ms Rainey testified that she gave the names of two different movies – Shopgirl and White Jazz.
According to Ms Rainey, Ryder said: “I was told that I should shoplift, I’m doing a role where I am required to shoplift. My director said I should try it out.”
