Winona in Court: Push Comes to Shove

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday June 04, 2002 12:00 PM EDT

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Winona Ryder broke her right arm outside a Beverly Hills courtroom Monday after the "Girl, Interrupted" star was ordered to face trial on felony counts of shoplifting, vandalism and illegal possession of prescription painkillers, reports Reuters. The hearing, stemming from Ryder's Dec. 12, 2001, arrest outside the Beverly Hills branch of Saks Fifth Avenue for allegedly stealing nearly $5,000 worth of store merchandise (as well as, say police records, possession of the painkillers), already had been postponed four previous times. With the injury, which reportedly came when press photographers shoved the actress as they jockeyed for a better shot of her, the case has been postponed for a fifth time, until Thursday. "There's a fracture in the elbow area," Ryder's attorney Mark Geragos told CNN on Monday night. "It appears that it's a clean fracture so it looks like it'll heal." Earlier in Monday's proceedings, Geragos arrived in court without Ryder, 30, seeking yet another postponement and to have the L.A. County District Attorney's Office removed from the case because they had an "ax to grind" against Ryder, Geragos claimed. Replied an impatient Superior Court Judge Elden Fox: "I want your client here, so call her." An hour later, she arrived, looking pale and nervous, Reuters reported. She was present for brief testimony by a store security official, then was injured while returning to court following a lunch break. Monday night, to CNN's Larry King (CNN, like PEOPLE, is part of AOL Time Warner), Geragos, who also represents Gary Condit, insisted of Ryder, "She wanted to stay there and continue, get this over with. And I said, 'I'm not going to sit here while your arm is blowing up.' Finally I went into chambers and told the judge, 'I'm taking her to a doctor, I'm taking her right now.'"

Read PEOPLE's story about Ryder's arrest and other recent woes.