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Winona Ryder Defense Begins Presenting Trial Today
Aired November 01, 2002 - 10:27 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our next story is not necessarily bizarre, but it is strangely compelling. Starting today, we'll get to hear Winona Ryder's side of the story in her shoplifting trial. Her attorney will begin presenting the defense's case this afternoon. Yesterday, the last witness for the prosecution testified that Ryder admitted to shoplifting using the excuse that she was preparing for a movie role. Ryder maintains her innocence. For some legal insight, we bring back Harvey Levin. He's in L.A. once again, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice."
Harvey, good morning once again.
HARVEY LEVIN, EXEC. PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Hi, Daryn.
KAGAN: When we had you here yesterday, you said that "Celebrity Justice," your show, was looking into this idea that Ryder really did have some connections to some projects that did deal with shoplifting. What did you find out?
LEVIN: Here's the deal, she allegedly said, this is according to the security people when she was stopped, that she was taking things because she was researching a role for a movie, and she allegedly changed the movie. First she mentioned "Shop Girl," and then changed it to a movie called "White Jazz."
Here's what we found out. As for "Shop Girl," Winona Ryder's people said, number one, she never said anything about preparing for movie roles. She did mention the book to one of the clerks while being detained, but never said she was up for a movie.
Ironically, the book is about a sales clerk in Neiman-Marcus who is so depressed she is on prescription drugs,and you realize the irony here, that Winona Ryder was caught with prescription drugs. The other movie that the clerks say she mentioned that she was up for, was something called "White Jazz." That, according to her publicist, was a movie she was up for, and we contacted the producers, and they told us that the movie was "in development hell." And you know what that means, that basically means it ain't going nowhere fast.
So they said it was absolutely ridiculous that -- this is according to Winona Ryder's people, that she was doing this to prepare for a role, although frankly, it is kind of bizarre. Why is she talking to these clerks at that time about her movie projects?
KAGAN: That would be strange. We should say, in the interest of fairness, that the charge involving the prescription drugs has been dropped and that's not a matter at this trial right now. LEVIN: Correct.
KAGAN: Now the defense attorney, I understand yesterday went after one of the last prosecution witnesses with a vengeance, the woman who used to be a security associate for Saks, went into her financial affairs brought that up while she was on the witness stand?
LEVIN: Yes, I mean, what he seemed to be getting at was that somehow, Miss Raney (ph), the security officer, and her husband were setting up a shell company to set up to sell her story. If you remember in the O.J. Simpson case, there was a famous woman, Jill Shivley (ph), She became famous because she sold her story to "Hard Copy." Raney (ph) this is absolutely not true. Geragos really didn't tie it together, but that was the insinuation.
Another interesting thing that happened with Raney (ph), Daryn, was that Mark Geragos, Winona's lawyer, kind of portrayed her as a starstruck woman, going into her file-o-fax, asking, wow, you have Bono's phone number, wow, you have Keanu Reeves phone number, I love him. She denied ever saying these things, and I find that strategy a little bit curious, and I find that strategy a little bit curious, because usually if somebody is really starstruck, they're going to cut the star a break, rather than set the star up. We'll see what Geragos does with that when he starts presenting his case today.
KAGAN: Right, and that's my last question. Who do we expect to have him put on the stand?
LEVIN: Well, he's said, he's going to call two people for sure. One of them is the spokesperson for the L.A. County district attorney's office, and another is the spokesperson for the Beverly Hills Police Department. Both of them went on record saying that this surveillance video shows Winona Ryder cutting off tags. "Celebrity Justice Extra" was the first to air this videotape on television, and it became apparent you do not see that happening, and I think what Geragos is going to do is, say, look, you guys were wrong from the get-go, you set your sights on her, you wanted to get her, and you would go to any lengths to do it, and I think that's going to be the focus of this defense.
KAGAN: All right, we'll be watching it. Harvey Levin from "Celebrity Justice," thanks for being with us all week. Appreciate it.
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 November 1, 2002 - 10:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our next story is not necessarily bizarre, but it is strangely compelling. Starting today, we'll get to hear Winona Ryder's side of the story in her shoplifting trial. Her attorney will begin presenting the defense's case this afternoon. Yesterday, the last witness for the prosecution testified that Ryder admitted to shoplifting using the excuse that she was preparing for a movie role. Ryder maintains her innocence. For some legal insight, we bring back Harvey Levin. He's in L.A. once again, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice."
Harvey, good morning once again.
HARVEY LEVIN, EXEC. PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Hi, Daryn.
KAGAN: When we had you here yesterday, you said that "Celebrity Justice," your show, was looking into this idea that Ryder really did have some connections to some projects that did deal with shoplifting. What did you find out?
LEVIN: Here's the deal, she allegedly said, this is according to the security people when she was stopped, that she was taking things because she was researching a role for a movie, and she allegedly changed the movie. First she mentioned "Shop Girl," and then changed it to a movie called "White Jazz."
Here's what we found out. As for "Shop Girl," Winona Ryder's people said, number one, she never said anything about preparing for movie roles. She did mention the book to one of the clerks while being detained, but never said she was up for a movie.
Ironically, the book is about a sales clerk in Neiman-Marcus who is so depressed she is on prescription drugs,and you realize the irony here, that Winona Ryder was caught with prescription drugs. The other movie that the clerks say she mentioned that she was up for, was something called "White Jazz." That, according to her publicist, was a movie she was up for, and we contacted the producers, and they told us that the movie was "in development hell." And you know what that means, that basically means it ain't going nowhere fast.
So they said it was absolutely ridiculous that -- this is according to Winona Ryder's people, that she was doing this to prepare for a role, although frankly, it is kind of bizarre. Why is she talking to these clerks at that time about her movie projects?
KAGAN: That would be strange. We should say, in the interest of fairness, that the charge involving the prescription drugs has been dropped and that's not a matter at this trial right now. LEVIN: Correct.
KAGAN: Now the defense attorney, I understand yesterday went after one of the last prosecution witnesses with a vengeance, the woman who used to be a security associate for Saks, went into her financial affairs brought that up while she was on the witness stand?
LEVIN: Yes, I mean, what he seemed to be getting at was that somehow, Miss Raney (ph), the security officer, and her husband were setting up a shell company to set up to sell her story. If you remember in the O.J. Simpson case, there was a famous woman, Jill Shivley (ph), She became famous because she sold her story to "Hard Copy." Raney (ph) this is absolutely not true. Geragos really didn't tie it together, but that was the insinuation.
Another interesting thing that happened with Raney (ph), Daryn, was that Mark Geragos, Winona's lawyer, kind of portrayed her as a starstruck woman, going into her file-o-fax, asking, wow, you have Bono's phone number, wow, you have Keanu Reeves phone number, I love him. She denied ever saying these things, and I find that strategy a little bit curious, and I find that strategy a little bit curious, because usually if somebody is really starstruck, they're going to cut the star a break, rather than set the star up. We'll see what Geragos does with that when he starts presenting his case today.
KAGAN: Right, and that's my last question. Who do we expect to have him put on the stand?
LEVIN: Well, he's said, he's going to call two people for sure. One of them is the spokesperson for the L.A. County district attorney's office, and another is the spokesperson for the Beverly Hills Police Department. Both of them went on record saying that this surveillance video shows Winona Ryder cutting off tags. "Celebrity Justice Extra" was the first to air this videotape on television, and it became apparent you do not see that happening, and I think what Geragos is going to do is, say, look, you guys were wrong from the get-go, you set your sights on her, you wanted to get her, and you would go to any lengths to do it, and I think that's going to be the focus of this defense.
KAGAN: All right, we'll be watching it. Harvey Levin from "Celebrity Justice," thanks for being with us all week. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
