|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ryder not expected to testify
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Winona Ryder is not expected to testify in her own defense when her shoplifting trial resumes Monday, according to her attorney. Mark Geragos, Ryder's defense attorney, told CNN he would consider the option but felt that he had produced reasonable doubt and doing so would be unnecessary. The case could go to the jury as early as Monday following closing arguments. Geragos called several witnesses Friday who discounted previous claims about a videotape showing the actress cutting security tags off several items of clothing. Ryder, 31, is accused of stealing more than $5,500 in merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills last December. The man intended to be the defense's star witness turned out to be "an absolute disaster," according to one defense attorney. Michael Shoar, a former Saks employee, testified that the store's head of security, Kenneth Evans, had a vendetta against the actress. "On the phone [Evans] told me he would nail this Beverly Hills bitch and when I saw him in person he said he would make enough evidence to bring her down for this case," Shoar said. During cross-examination, prosecutor Ann Rundle asked Shoar if he had an ax to grind with Saks, and he responded, "Yes, I do," although he said later he was not bitter toward his former employer. The actress, star of "The Age of Innocence" and "Little Women" -- films which earned her academy award nominations and one Golden Globe award -- is on trial for felony grand theft, burglary and vandalism. She could face a maximum of three years in prison on each count if convicted. Ryder pleaded not guilty to all the charges and remains free on $20,000 bond. Geragos also focused his attention on a claim made by Beverly Hills Police Lt. Gary Gilmond a day after Ryder's arrest last December that "security officers observed both visually and by video Miss Ryder to remove sensormatic tags which are security tags." Geragos said the store's security tapes show no such thing and questioned Gilmond's motive. Gilmond testified he based his statement to the media on a written report by a Saks Fifth Avenue security guard and thought security cameras had captured Ryder cutting sensor tags off merchandise. It was an error, he said. Earlier this year, Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, released a statement from the office that mentioned the claim by Beverly Hills police that Ryder was captured on camera cutting security tags off merchandise. Geragos questioned the motive of the district attorney's office, and Gibbons testified it was her error and that she had never seen the tape. A day before the prosecution rested its case Thursday, lawyers presented a store theft investigator who testified that Ryder was seen taking scissors out of her purse, that she cut security tags off some items, and that when stopped the actress said she was researching a movie role. In Geragos' cross-examination of prosecution witness Colleen Rainey, the former investigator for Saks' theft and loss department, he suggested that Rainey and her husband, a struggling screenwriter, hoped to cash in on the story, which Rainey denied. 'Twisting and morphing'The defense attorney also said several key points of Rainey's testimony Wednesday were not listed on the initial incident report. Rainey said she amended the report to include those points the day after the alleged shoplifting. She also testified Wednesday that the actress apologized before her arrest, telling authorities she should have notified the store about the research for the movie role. Mara Buxbaum, a publicist for Ryder, said the movie role story was the result of security guards at the store "twisting and morphing" their conversation with the actress after she was detained. Buxbaum said a guard asked Ryder if she had read the Steve Martin novel "Shopgirl." She said no, and then told the guards she was preparing for a role in a film called "White Jazz," the publicist said. Rainey testified Wednesday that Ryder told her she was taking the items -- which included a $750 blouse and a $540 purse -- to research a role for a film called "Shopgirl." But when Beverly Hills police arrived, Rainey said she heard the actress tell them it was for a movie called "White Jazz." Another security guard, Ernest Amaya, told the court Thursday that after Ryder was stopped with the merchandise, she apologized and said she thought her assistant had paid for the items. He said the actress was polite and friendly. CNN Correspondent Thelma Gutierrez and CNN Producer Stan Wilson contributed to this story.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
