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American Morning

Winona Watch: Jury Deliberations Begin This Morning

Aired November 05, 2002 - 09:47   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The prosecution says she's a thrill- seeking thief. The defense says she's a victim of overzealous security guards. And today, the jury in Winona Ryder's shoplifting trial will start to decide what they think happened. The actress did not testify and her attorney, Mark Geragos, did he play his cards right? We thought we would ask another lawyer, who's no stranger to high-profile case. Howard Weitzman was part of the O.J. Simpson defense team, and also represented Hugh Grant.
Howard Weitzman join us live from Los Angeles. Good morning.

HOWARD WEITZMAN, : Good morning.

COSTELLO: So if you had to guess, what will the outcome be?

WEITZMAN: My guess would be that she would be convicted. All of the evidence seems to indicate that. She got caught with a number of items that were not paid for. Some had the sensor tags cut off, and that's a grand theft. You have to put up a defense. The defense generally is what you intended when you walked out of the store with the goods. They really didn't put on a defense. We never from Winona, because her lawyer thought it was not appropriate she testify, and I agree with him in that tactic.

COSTELLO: Well, a lot of people do. We're going to get into the defense tactics a little later. Let's talk about the prosecution first, because the closing arguments from the prosecutor was rather interesting and entertaining. She presented a David Letterman top 10 list on why Winona Ryder should be found guilty, number 10 being, there should be a high art standard of proof for celebrities, number three was, crime is OK if your director tells you to do it, and the number one was, only poor people steal. Was this effective?

WEITZMAN: I, of course, wasn't on the jury. I would think it would be affective assuming she did a tongue in cheek. I might have even done something that cynical and sarcastic, to point out that Winona gets no better or no less of a consideration than the average person.

Again, when you take items, you don't pay for them, you cross the threshold of the retail establishment. That's a prima facie theft, kind of in the ball game there.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the defense now. Mark Geragos, Winona Ryder's attorney, only presented four witnesses. Did that surprise you? WEITZMAN: No, I didn't really see a defense here. The only defense again would have been had we heard from Ms. Ryder, and she explained to us how she made the mistake and how she'd done. She didn't have to testify. I think it was better for her that she didn't testify. I think it would have been worse, and he did the best he could with what he had, which was nothing.

COSTELLO: Why did they bring this case to trial in the first place?

WEITZMAN: You know, I haven't understood that from day one, and my experience, and I've handled hundreds of these, you take a high- profile client like Ms. Ryder into the district attorney's office. You concede what appears to be the facts. You beg for a plea bargain that will allow you to go on with your life. Even if you have to plea to a felony and do probation for 12 months, my experience is those are always reduced to misdemeanors, they're expunged, and you end up without any criminal conviction.

COSTELLO: Well, from what I understand, was there no plea offered to her.

WEITZMAN: I really -- I'm not clear with all of the facts. What I know is this, from the time of her arrest, Mr. Geragos, for whatever reasons, polarized the other side. He began to call them liars. They began to say that they'd set her up, they were persecuting her. Look, the one thing we never heard here that was somebody stuffed the items in her bag without the sensor tag and pushed her outside. And other than that, there doesn't appear to be any defense.

COSTELLO: OK, but it's likely she will get probation, even if she is convicted. Do you think it will hurt her career in the long run?

WEITZMAN: No. I think win or lose this case, she'll be forever tainted as a shoplifter, but she's a wonderfully talented individual, and people will hire her, people like Peter Guber on the jury will hire her if they want her in a particular case. Only in Hollywood. Only in Hollywood.

COSTELLO: You're right about that. Mr. Weitzman, thanks a lot.

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 5, 2002 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The prosecution says she's a thrill- seeking thief. The defense says she's a victim of overzealous security guards. And today, the jury in Winona Ryder's shoplifting trial will start to decide what they think happened. The actress did not testify and her attorney, Mark Geragos, did he play his cards right? We thought we would ask another lawyer, who's no stranger to high-profile case. Howard Weitzman was part of the O.J. Simpson defense team, and also represented Hugh Grant.
Howard Weitzman join us live from Los Angeles. Good morning.

HOWARD WEITZMAN, : Good morning.

COSTELLO: So if you had to guess, what will the outcome be?

WEITZMAN: My guess would be that she would be convicted. All of the evidence seems to indicate that. She got caught with a number of items that were not paid for. Some had the sensor tags cut off, and that's a grand theft. You have to put up a defense. The defense generally is what you intended when you walked out of the store with the goods. They really didn't put on a defense. We never from Winona, because her lawyer thought it was not appropriate she testify, and I agree with him in that tactic.

COSTELLO: Well, a lot of people do. We're going to get into the defense tactics a little later. Let's talk about the prosecution first, because the closing arguments from the prosecutor was rather interesting and entertaining. She presented a David Letterman top 10 list on why Winona Ryder should be found guilty, number 10 being, there should be a high art standard of proof for celebrities, number three was, crime is OK if your director tells you to do it, and the number one was, only poor people steal. Was this effective?

WEITZMAN: I, of course, wasn't on the jury. I would think it would be affective assuming she did a tongue in cheek. I might have even done something that cynical and sarcastic, to point out that Winona gets no better or no less of a consideration than the average person.

Again, when you take items, you don't pay for them, you cross the threshold of the retail establishment. That's a prima facie theft, kind of in the ball game there.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the defense now. Mark Geragos, Winona Ryder's attorney, only presented four witnesses. Did that surprise you? WEITZMAN: No, I didn't really see a defense here. The only defense again would have been had we heard from Ms. Ryder, and she explained to us how she made the mistake and how she'd done. She didn't have to testify. I think it was better for her that she didn't testify. I think it would have been worse, and he did the best he could with what he had, which was nothing.

COSTELLO: Why did they bring this case to trial in the first place?

WEITZMAN: You know, I haven't understood that from day one, and my experience, and I've handled hundreds of these, you take a high- profile client like Ms. Ryder into the district attorney's office. You concede what appears to be the facts. You beg for a plea bargain that will allow you to go on with your life. Even if you have to plea to a felony and do probation for 12 months, my experience is those are always reduced to misdemeanors, they're expunged, and you end up without any criminal conviction.

COSTELLO: Well, from what I understand, was there no plea offered to her.

WEITZMAN: I really -- I'm not clear with all of the facts. What I know is this, from the time of her arrest, Mr. Geragos, for whatever reasons, polarized the other side. He began to call them liars. They began to say that they'd set her up, they were persecuting her. Look, the one thing we never heard here that was somebody stuffed the items in her bag without the sensor tag and pushed her outside. And other than that, there doesn't appear to be any defense.

COSTELLO: OK, but it's likely she will get probation, even if she is convicted. Do you think it will hurt her career in the long run?

WEITZMAN: No. I think win or lose this case, she'll be forever tainted as a shoplifter, but she's a wonderfully talented individual, and people will hire her, people like Peter Guber on the jury will hire her if they want her in a particular case. Only in Hollywood. Only in Hollywood.

COSTELLO: You're right about that. Mr. Weitzman, thanks a lot.

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