Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz) is an American actress born on October 29, 1971 in Winona, Minnesota to Michael and Cindy Horowitz. Cindy Horowitz (nee 'Palmer') was of English descent while Michael Horowitz was born in Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania. His family's original name had been 'Tomchin' but they had been wrongly assigned the name 'Horowitz' by U.S. immigration officials at Ellis Island.

Shoplifting incident

On December 12, 2001, Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes and accessories at Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, California.

Related Topics:
Shoplifting - Saks Fifth Avenue - Department store - Beverly Hills, California

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During the trial, she was also accused of using drugs without valid prescriptions, according to a probation report which can be found on The Smoking Gun website, she had up to 37 prescriptions filled by 20 doctors, using 6 different aliases, in a three-year period.

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L.A. District Attorney Stephen Cooley set up a team of eight prosecutors and seized the opportunity to sue the actress aggressively and filed four felony charges against her in what was described by The Guardian (UK) as a show-trial since the prosecution demanded the trial be televised.

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Winona hired noted defense attorney Mark Geragos and mounted her defense to fight the charges. Negotiations for a plea-bargain failed at the end of summer 2002. As noted by Joel Mowbray from the National Review, the prosecution was not ready to offer the actress what was given to 5000 other defendants in similar cases, an open door to a no-contest plea on misdemeanor charges.

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The defense produced the official documents for the drugs the police found in her purse and the prosecution consequently dropped the charge. Winona was eventually convicted of grand theft and vandalism but the jury acquitted her on the third felony charge (burglary). On 6 December, 2002 she was sentenced to 480 hours of community service, three years' suspended imprisonment, $3700 in fines, and $6355 in restitution to Saks. Winona was also ordered to attend psychological and drug counselling into the care of renowned therapist Dr Heather Krell.

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6 December - 2002

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At the time of sentencing, Superior Court Judge Elden Fox reprimanded her: "You have disappointed people you have inspired with your talent and acts of humanity". However, during subsequent probation hearings, Justice Fox praised the actress for her conduct and progress.

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The charges were later attenuated and the felonies reduced to misdemeanors on June 18, 2004.

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