D.A. Seeks Probation, Counseling for Ryder

County prosecutors are recommending that film star Winona Ryder do 60 days of community service, undergo drug and psychiatric counseling, and pay more than $26,000 in fines and restitution as a result of her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Ryder, who had faced a possible three-year prison term, is due to be sentenced Friday in a Beverly Hills courtroom for felony grand theft and vandalism. The district attorney’s office previously announced that it would seek to place her on felony probation rather than demand jail time.

Ryder’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said Tuesday that he does not plan to file a motion for a new trial -- a contrast from his reaction last month after Ryder was convicted of shoplifting $5,560 in designer merchandise from Saks in Beverly Hills. Ryder was acquitted of burglary.

“I’m certainly happy they’re not asking for jail time,” Geragos said. “I would imagine [Ryder] is pleased too.”

Prosecutors issued the sentencing memorandum without comment.

According to the five-page memo, the recommended sentence is meant to punish Ryder “for her criminal conduct, deterring others by demonstrating the consequences of such conduct and requiring the defendant to cooperate in [a] plan for psychiatric and/or drug counseling so her actions on December 12, 2001 will not be repeated.”

Ryder, the 31-year-old star of such movies as “Girl, Interrupted,” “Little Women” and “The Age of Innocence,” has no prior convictions.

Court transcripts made public after the trial disclosed that Ryder was suspected of shoplifting on three previous occasions at Neiman Marcus and Barneys stores. Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox ruled that such evidence could not be presented to the jury.

When Ryder was arrested outside Saks, she was found with 20 unpaid-for designer items valued at $5,560.

At trial, much of the prosecution’s case focused on lengthy videotapes from Saks security cameras showing Ryder walking through the store laden with merchandise and shopping bags. At times, Ryder, who is free on $20,000 bail, stuffed socks and hair bows into a hat.

In the sentencing memo, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Rundle recommended that Ryder pay Saks $6,355.40 for stolen and damaged merchandise as well as $20,000 in restitution and penal fines.

They also stated that they oppose allowing Ryder to design her own community service program. The D.A.’s office believes “that the punitive aspect of community service will serve as a deterrent for the defendant and demonstrate to her that criminal conduct results in serious consequences for the offender.”

Prosecutors also have said they hope that during probation, drug and psychiatric counseling will address Ryder’s problems that they believe may have led her to commit the crimes.

When Beverly Hills police booked Ryder late last year, they found in her possession eight narcotics, including liquid Demerol and diazepam, Valium, Vicodin, Percodan, Vicoprofen, morphine sulfate and Endocet containing oxycodone. Seven of the drugs had been prescribed to her by physicians, and prosecutors dropped a drug possession count on the eighth when a doctor acknowledged having provided it to her as part of a medical treatment.

The D.A.’s office asked that Judge Fox order Ryder to use her birth name -- Winona Horowitz -- or her stage name when seeking prescriptions for controlled substances. The actress had obtained the drugs from several physicians and used different names to obtain them, including Emily Thompson.