Prosecutors: Ryder Needs Drug, Shoplifting Therapy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Prosecutors plan to ask that actress Winona Ryder undergo drug and psychiatric counseling as part of her shoplifting sentence to be handed down on Friday, saying she was carrying eight different drugs when arrested — some of them obtained under a different name.
According to court papers released on Tuesday, prosecutors are not seeking jail time for the Oscar-nominated star but are instead recommending that she be given three years probation, 60 days community service and a fine of $10,000.
Ryder was convicted last month on two counts of shoplifting some $5,500 of designer goods from the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills in December last year after a sensational 10-day jury trial.
Ryder, 31, star of “Girl, Interrupted” and “Age of Innocence,” had pleaded not guilty but did not testify. Her lawyers accused both Saks and prosecutors of targeting her because of her celebrity.
But it emerged after the trial that Ryder had been involved three times since May 2000 in suspected shoplifting incidents at other posh department stores but had never been charged.
Legal documents released ahead of Ryder’s Friday sentencing provided more startling details about her arrest after already humiliating testimony that she used scissors to cut Saks security tags off handbags and hair bows costing hundreds of dollars apiece.
According to the documents, Ryder was found with eight prescription drugs in her possession when booked by police at Saks. They included sedatives like Valium and Diazepam and opiates such as Vicoden and Oxycodone — among the most commonly abused prescription drugs in the United States.
DIFFERENT NAMES USED TO GET DRUGS
“The prescriptions obtained were from several different physicians and the defendant had utilized at least two different names in obtaining them,” prosecutor Ann Rundle wrote.
A single charge against Ryder for illegal possession of the painkiller Oxycodone was dropped before trial after a doctor admitted providing it for the actress without a prescription.
Rundle recommended that Ryder “should be ordered to cooperate with her probation officer in a plan for both drug and psychiatric counseling.”
Ryder should also “be ordered to use only her true name, Winona Horowitz, or her stage name Winona Ryder…(and) should be prohibited from using any AKA’s (aliases) for the purpose of obtaining any prescription for any controlled substance,” Rundle added.
Rundle suggested at the trial that Ryder may have shoplifted for thrills but said the prosecution would not seek jail time for the actress although the charges carry a possible prison sentence of up to three years.
Witnesses at the trial said Ryder had first claimed that she thought her assistant had paid for the 20 items found stuffed in her bags and hidden under her coat. She later claimed she had been told to shoplift by a director to research for an upcoming movie role.
Court transcripts kept secret during the trial because of concerns they might prejudice a jury revealed that Ryder had twice been videotaped and once been observed at Barneys of New York and Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills before her arrest at Saks.
Prosecutors said the videotapes showed Ryder behaving in a similar way to her video-taped shopping spree at Saks — selecting designer clothes, concealing them under a large garment bag, going in and out of dressing rooms, and leaving without paying.
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