Winona Ryder's Day in Court Stalled

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday May 23, 2002 11:00 AM EDT

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On Wednesday, Winona Ryder starred in "Case, Interrupted." The actress, charged with shoplifting some $5,000 worth of merchandise from the Beverly Hills branch of Saks Fifth Avenue last December, had her preliminary hearing delayed yet again, reports the Associated Press. Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox set a new date of June 3, at which time he will determine whether or not Ryder will stand trial. The purpose for the postponement, says the AP, is that Ryder's lawyer, Mark Geragos, has a scheduling conflict (he's currently also handling a murder case). The Ryder case has been put off several times, though the jurist did state Wednesday, after Geragos asked for the consideration, that the request "was not unreasonable or wimpy," the AP reports. Still, the decision did not please prosecutor Julie Jurek. "There's no reason to keep continuing the case," Jurke said in court, according to the AP, where she argued that it is time for the defense to proceed. Ryder, 30, remains free on $20,000 bail and faces up to three years, eight months in prison if convicted. She did not attend Wednesday's 10-minute proceeding. At the time of her arrest, police said that besides merchandise from Saks, Ryder was also in possession of the morphine-derived painkiller oxycodone without a prescription. Her lawyer has said that she did have a prescription and that she was only transporting the merchandise between departments. Ryder has entered pleas of not guilty to charges of theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance.