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Winona Could Face 3 Years if Convicted

Aired October 30, 2002 - 10:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(AUDIO GAP)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: ... $6,000 worth of goods, and she's facing the possibility of three years in prison, if convicted. For more on the trial we're bringing back Harvey Levin, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice."

Harvey, good morning.

HARVEY LEVIN, EXEC. PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": I assume, Daryn, you were going from hair to mohair.

KAGAN: Exactly. Is that what one of the things was made of?

LEVIN: No, I just -- the best thing I could think of at this hour.

KAGAN: I know it's a little early for you there. But it was Winona's 31st birthday.

LEVIN: It was and, you know, interesting. This was obviously not a cause for celebration. Her parents were in the courtroom. This woman is not thinking about birthdays. She has her eyes trained on the video in the courtroom. She is totally involved in this case. She is talking to her lawyer to the point where she's almost distracting him, but it is serious business for her. This was not a happy birthday.

KAGAN: So they watched the security video, but as I understand it, on the video, you don't actually see her cutting off security tags.

LEVIN: Well, that's -- when we aired this story, Daryn, we talked about this on "Celebrity Justice Extra," a while ago. It was very apparent. You do not see her clipping it off like the police and D.A. said, but what they brought up yesterday, almost frame by frame, with the security guard in the store, is you watch her conduct, which the guard was testifying was very suspicious, that she would walk around. She had's put a hat on. You see the price tag go in the dressing room. Then it was like a hat trick, because the hat is in a bag. There are clothes she has draped over her shoulder. She walks in a dressing room, and a bag she is carrying every time she comes out just keeps growing and growing and growing.

So they're trying really to prove this circumstantially by the videotape that there was obviously something going on with Winona Ryder in the dressing room, and when she finally walked out. There are 20 items she didn't pay for, and that's the basis of the case.

KAGAN: A couple things, Harvey. This is my hometown, so I can say it, if you're going to arrest people in Southern California for acting odd, there's going to be a lot of people in the jails.

LEVIN: Yes, you know, and you know what's funny, we're not allowed to mention the name of this juror, but there is a bigtime producer on this jury who produced some of her movies, and, you know, maybe this guy is kind of sympathetic to exactly what you just said, that people act bizarrely in Hollywood, especially celebrities sometimes, and maybe this kind of a juror is more sympathetic to that argument than anybody else.

KAGAN: A couple things I have learned. She did actually pay for some items before she left the store.

LEVIN: Not only did she pay for them, but she had given her credit card to the clerk, so, you know, there is a thing at Beverly Hills stores where they have these personal shoppers.

KAGAN: Love it.

LEVIN: And -- doesn't happen to me. But you leave your card and you just basically say, I'll take this, I'll take that, and one of the arguments could be, hey, she bought $2,000 worth of stuff, so it kind of got mixed up, she wasn't quite sure what was going on, but her credit card was there, she did purchase merchandise, and the defense has the receipts.

KAGAN: So what do we expect today in the trial.

LEVIN: Well, they will have more prosecution witnesses who are going to talk about her conduct inside the store. We know that her defense lawyer is going to try to hammer home the fact that, you know, the video didn't show what the police said it was going to show. The video didn't show what the D.A. said it was going to show, and his argument is going to be that the witnesses changed their story after it came out that the video wasn't the smoking gun, and he's going to try and impeach them, saying they embellished it, so that they could get on television, so that they could make the case better, and we will see who prevails.

KAGAN: Indeed, we'll be watching. Harvey Levin, from "Celebrity Justice," thanks. Appreciate.

LEVIN: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 30, 2002 - 10:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(AUDIO GAP)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: ... $6,000 worth of goods, and she's facing the possibility of three years in prison, if convicted. For more on the trial we're bringing back Harvey Levin, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice."

Harvey, good morning.

HARVEY LEVIN, EXEC. PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": I assume, Daryn, you were going from hair to mohair.

KAGAN: Exactly. Is that what one of the things was made of?

LEVIN: No, I just -- the best thing I could think of at this hour.

KAGAN: I know it's a little early for you there. But it was Winona's 31st birthday.

LEVIN: It was and, you know, interesting. This was obviously not a cause for celebration. Her parents were in the courtroom. This woman is not thinking about birthdays. She has her eyes trained on the video in the courtroom. She is totally involved in this case. She is talking to her lawyer to the point where she's almost distracting him, but it is serious business for her. This was not a happy birthday.

KAGAN: So they watched the security video, but as I understand it, on the video, you don't actually see her cutting off security tags.

LEVIN: Well, that's -- when we aired this story, Daryn, we talked about this on "Celebrity Justice Extra," a while ago. It was very apparent. You do not see her clipping it off like the police and D.A. said, but what they brought up yesterday, almost frame by frame, with the security guard in the store, is you watch her conduct, which the guard was testifying was very suspicious, that she would walk around. She had's put a hat on. You see the price tag go in the dressing room. Then it was like a hat trick, because the hat is in a bag. There are clothes she has draped over her shoulder. She walks in a dressing room, and a bag she is carrying every time she comes out just keeps growing and growing and growing.

So they're trying really to prove this circumstantially by the videotape that there was obviously something going on with Winona Ryder in the dressing room, and when she finally walked out. There are 20 items she didn't pay for, and that's the basis of the case.

KAGAN: A couple things, Harvey. This is my hometown, so I can say it, if you're going to arrest people in Southern California for acting odd, there's going to be a lot of people in the jails.

LEVIN: Yes, you know, and you know what's funny, we're not allowed to mention the name of this juror, but there is a bigtime producer on this jury who produced some of her movies, and, you know, maybe this guy is kind of sympathetic to exactly what you just said, that people act bizarrely in Hollywood, especially celebrities sometimes, and maybe this kind of a juror is more sympathetic to that argument than anybody else.

KAGAN: A couple things I have learned. She did actually pay for some items before she left the store.

LEVIN: Not only did she pay for them, but she had given her credit card to the clerk, so, you know, there is a thing at Beverly Hills stores where they have these personal shoppers.

KAGAN: Love it.

LEVIN: And -- doesn't happen to me. But you leave your card and you just basically say, I'll take this, I'll take that, and one of the arguments could be, hey, she bought $2,000 worth of stuff, so it kind of got mixed up, she wasn't quite sure what was going on, but her credit card was there, she did purchase merchandise, and the defense has the receipts.

KAGAN: So what do we expect today in the trial.

LEVIN: Well, they will have more prosecution witnesses who are going to talk about her conduct inside the store. We know that her defense lawyer is going to try to hammer home the fact that, you know, the video didn't show what the police said it was going to show. The video didn't show what the D.A. said it was going to show, and his argument is going to be that the witnesses changed their story after it came out that the video wasn't the smoking gun, and he's going to try and impeach them, saying they embellished it, so that they could get on television, so that they could make the case better, and we will see who prevails.

KAGAN: Indeed, we'll be watching. Harvey Levin, from "Celebrity Justice," thanks. Appreciate.

LEVIN: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com