Image Source: PM – Il Piccolo Missionario, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
Actress Winona Ryder faced criminal charges after being detained at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, California, on December 12, 2001. Prosecutors accused Ryder of leaving the store with thousands of dollars in designer clothing and accessories for which she had not paid and of removing security sensors from merchandise. She had also purchased more than $3,000 worth of merchandise during the same shopping trip. Ryder’s defense maintained that she had intended to pay for the disputed items and accused store security personnel of targeting her because she was a celebrity.
Ryder’s trial began in October 2002. Prosecutors presented store surveillance footage and testimony from Saks employees and security personnel. Saks asset-protection manager Ken Evans testified that, after Ryder was detained, she apologized and said that a director had instructed her to shoplift in preparation for a role. Another Saks employee gave similar testimony. Ryder did not testify, and her attorney Mark Geragos later said that she had never adopted the movie-role explanation as her defense. On November 6, 2002, a jury convicted Ryder of grand theft and vandalism but acquitted her of burglary.
On December 6, 2002, Ryder received three years of probation, 480 hours of community service, counseling requirements, and financial penalties and restitution. She made no substantive statement in court at sentencing. Ryder largely avoided publicly discussing the incident for several years. In a 2007 interview with Vogue, however, she attributed her condition around the time of the arrest partly to confusion associated with prescription painkillers she had been taking after breaking her arm. She also minimized the perceived harm of the offense by saying she had not experienced overwhelming guilt because she had not physically harmed another person. The interview became her most extensive public attempt to explain the episode after years of silence.
Statement Attributed to Winona Ryder Following Her Detention (December 12, 2001):
The following excerpt was attributed to Ryder in trial testimony by Saks Fifth Avenue asset-protection manager Ken Evans:
“I’m sorry for what I did. My director directed me to shoplift for a role which I was preparing.”
Excerpt from Winona Ryder’s Vogue Interview (2007):
“I didn’t have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn’t hurt anyone. Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience.”
On her reported quote that her director asked her to do it as part of her movie role: “I never said a word. I didn’t release a statement. I didn’t do anything. I just waited for it to be over.”
“The attention was what was embarrassing.”
“Two months prior to that, I broke my arm in two places, and the doctor, a sort of quack doctor, was giving me a lot of stuff and I was taking it at first to get through the pain. And then there was this weird point when you don’t know if you are in pain but you’re taking it.”
“No one ever got angry with me. Concerned, yes, but not concerned with a drug problem or anything. Because after that night I pretty much didn’t ever. … If you are ever arrested, you can’t ever do that again.”
