Winona's Shoplifting Trial to Proceed

By Jo Cavallo

Tuesday July 16, 2002 01:00 PM EDT

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The trial will go on. A judge ruled Monday that the district attorney's office prosecuting actress Winona Ryder can proceed with its case against the actress, according to news reports. Ryder's lawyer Mark Geragos had hoped to get the Los Angeles County district attorney's office disqualified from the high-profile case, accusing a spokesperson for it of trying to humiliate the actress, 30, by making false statements to the press, the Associated Press reports. He claimed that D.A. spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons incorrectly described the contents of a security videotape of Ryder, who is accused of stealing more than $4,800 worth of designer clothes from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills last December, as well as carrying painkillers without a prescription. But Superior Court Judge Elden Fox ruled that Geragos had not presented enough cause to replace the D.A.'s office with the California attorney general's office, reports Reuters. Ryder, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was not in court Monday, could face more than three years in prison if convicted. In a preliminary hearing in June, a Saks security guard testified she had witnessed the actress cutting security tags off the merchandise. The "Mr. Deeds" star is free on $20,000 bail and is due back in court Aug. 13 for a pretrial hearing, at which a trial date is expected to be set.