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Los Angeles prosecutor: Winona Ryder came to steal
Actress Winona Ryder went on her ill-fated shopping spree last December with intent to steal, even bringing scissors to clip security tags from purloined items and wads of tissue to conceal them, a prosecutor said at her shoplifting trial on Monday. Ryder went to the posh Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills with cash and a credit card, in addition to "her own two-for-one bonus program -- for every item she purchased she would help herself to another," Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle said in her opening statement to the jury. But Ryder's lawyer, Mark Geragos, told jurors the two-time Oscar nominee had been wrongly accused of shoplifting 20 items of clothing, handbags and other items valued at more than $5,500 last Dec. 12. "This is nothing more than some security guards who got out of control," Geragos said, adding that the famous video surveillance tape that captured Ryder's shopping spree shows her doing nothing "except -- surprise -- shopping." The jury of six men and six women is expected to view all 19 minutes of the videotape footage during the trial. The panel includes Peter Guber, the former head of Sony Pictures Entertainment who was at the studio when it released two films for which Ryder received Oscar nominations -- "The Age of Innocence" in 1993 and "Little Women" in 1994. Ryder, who turns 31 on Tuesday, entered the Beverly Hills courtroom with her arm around Geragos. Dressed in a simple, black dress with her dark pulled back under a hair band, she sat silently during the proceedings, appearing pale and serious. She is charged with grand theft, second-degree burglary and vandalism for allegedly cutting security tags off merchandise while in the Saks store and walking out the door without paying for them. She has pleaded innocent to all the charges. Rundle said the jury would hear evidence from Saks security guards that Ryder had brought with her a pair of scissors to snip security sensor tags from merchandise and also a bag full of tissue paper for concealing and wrapping the items she was stealing. Her lawyers have insisted the actress was the victim of a misunderstanding and is being singled out for especially harsh treatment because of her celebrity status. "KEEP THE ACCOUNT OPEN" Geragos told the jury that evidence would show that early on in her shopping trip, Ryder had told a store assistant at the cash register to keep her account open, explaining she planned to pay for the items later. And he said security personnel had repeatedly changed their stories in recounting what they saw. He also said Ryder was mistreated by store security after she was arrested and taken back inside for questioning. "They threatened her, did all kinds of things ... One of the guys lifts up her ... shirt -- she's not wearing a bra -- and she screamed at them to stop," Geragos said. "My client did not believe this was happening to her." Although a security manager said in pretrial testimony he thought Ryder was a homeless person at first, Geragos said his client was wearing a long cashmere coat and was recognized from the outset. "What really happened was they saw it was Winona Ryder immediately, and they focused in on her," he said.
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