Winona says director told her to steal

Published on Wednesday 30 October 2002 00:00

WINONA Ryder told a security manager she had tried to steal clothes from a Los Angeles store as practice for a forthcoming film role, her trial has heard.

Ken Evans, a security manager, told the jury that Ryder admitted she had attempted to shoplift at Saks Fifth Avenue, claiming she was following a film director’s instructions.

He said he met Ryder soon after she had been detained, while store officials were deciding whether to refer the case to police.

"She was seated and she immediately stood up and took my hand," said Mr Evans, the asset protection manager at the Beverly Hills shop. "She said, ‘I’m sorry for what I did. My director directed me to shoplift for a role which I was preparing’."

The 31-year-old actress was arrested in December for allegedly stealing $5,560.40 worth of designer merchandise, including hats, handbags, tops and hair accessories.

Mr Evans was the first witness to give evidence in Ryder’s trial on three felony charges of grand theft, commercial burglary and vandalism. He told how he watched the star’s every move as she walked around the shop picking up armfuls of clothing.

He said he became suspicious because she was carrying several shopping bags and picking up so much merchandise.

At one point, Mr Evans said that he saw the defendant place a designer hat on her head and go into a changing room wearing it.

He said there was a price tag dangling from the hat when she went into the fitting room but when she came out later, it had gone.

Ryder could face up to three years in prison if convicted. The actress, whose films include Mr Deeds, Little Women and Girl Interrupted, denies all the charges.

In her opening statements, the deputy district attorney, Ann Rundle, portrayed Ryder as a thief with a plan to shoplift.

She said the actress arrived for a shopping expedition at Saks on 12 December last year carrying scissors, a large garment bag and tissue paper.

While she was there, she bought a total of four items but stole a further 20, Ms Rundle told the jury of six men and six women.

She said the case before them was "a simple case of theft".

"She [Ryder] came prepared to buy with her cash and credit cards but unlike other shoppers she also came with the intent to steal," Ms Rundle said

But Ryder’s defence team claimed she was the victim of overzealous security guards who never saw her steal anything.

Her defence attorney, Mark Geragos, objected that none of Mr Evans’ comments had been disclosed to him by the prosecutors, but the judge, Elden Fox, overruled the objection.

Jurors were shown about 45 minutes of security camera videotape of Ryder.

The tape showed her walking around the shop, carrying packages and items she had taken off racks, and with a hat bearing a price tag perched on her head.

Her attorney dismissed the videotaped evidence.

"It doesn’t show her cutting off sensor tags or that she spent $3,700 there that day and that they had her credit card," Mr Geragos said.

Mr Geragos said that the shop had Ryder’s credit card on file and that she told an assistant to keep it open.

He said that when Ryder was detained she said, "You’ve got my credit card; you can do what you want with it."

He will argue that a Saks security guard, who claims she peered through a changing room door and saw Ryder snip sensor tags off goods and stuff them in a bag, is lying.

In his opening statement he claimed that several Saks employees who are witnesses in the case had changed their stories after the videotape on which Ryder is seen shopping was found not to show any evidence of the actress shoplifting.

The Beverly Hills police department and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office initially claimed that the videotape showed Ryder removing sensor tags and stuffing stolen goods into her bags.

However, after a television show obtained and ran the video, it soon became apparent there was no such evidence on the tape.

It was after that that the witnesses changed their stories, Mr Geragos told the court.