# Winona Ryder's Defense **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827 "2002-06-07T13:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/1 "2002-06-07T13:19:28Z")
A fact I didn’t know about Winona Ryder’s alleged shoplifting charge is this: > [@](#): > > The suspected sticky-fingered starlet listened as Evans said he found four sensor tags in a changing room she used. > > The tags correlated with the contraband in her bag, he said This hardly supports her defense that she absent-mindedly put the clothes in her bag. If found guilty, is it likely that she’ll serve any time, or will she get off with a slap on her wrist simply beacuse she is a ‘celebrity?’ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/2 "2002-06-07T13:56:36Z")
A slap, a small fine, and a contibution to an unrelated cause ala Dionne Warwick. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/3 "2002-06-07T14:34:00Z")
She’ll get a slap on the wrist, but not because she’s a celebrity. She’ll get a slap on the wrist because that’s what all first-time offenders get. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/4 "2002-06-07T14:52:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spoke- \* > \*\*She’ll get a slap on the wrist, but not because she’s a celebrity. > > She’ll get a slap on the wrist because that’s what all first-time offenders get. \*\* Isn’t possession of a controlled substance without a prescription an offence, too? That would be TWO offences. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/5 "2002-06-07T14:59:04Z")
Yeah, but it would be the FIRST for each. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/6 "2002-06-07T15:08:00Z")
Well, if that’s the case she’d better keep her nose clean. Doesn’t California have the 3 strikes law? ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Baroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Billy\_Baroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Baroo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/7 "2002-06-07T16:08:13Z")
Crap, I think having TV cameras and intrepid paparazzi at your arraignment is punishment enough. Well, that and dozens of hours of picking up trash on the highway too, of course. Lovely troubled Lydia. I just want her one time to deadpan her Beetlejuice line: “My life is a darkroom. One Big Dark Room.” ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/8 "2002-06-08T08:03:46Z")
Celebrities usually get a free pass. Witness Halle Berry with her hit and run. That’s a felony, but she got off. She told Diane Sawyer (or somebody…any Dopers who know please help) that she didn’t remember even having an accident, and then said she asked her then bouyfriend to take her back to the scene of the accident she didn’t remember having to see if anyone was still there. She should have gotten the Oscar right then. But jail time? NEVER. Celebrities don’t get the same treatment the rest of us would. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/9 "2002-06-08T08:05:26Z")
That’s “boyfriend.” Her Buoyfriend no doubt was keeping her afloat. :o ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/10 "2002-06-08T17:04:36Z")
First offenders do not always get off without jail time. If a young black man stole a $6,000 car, what kind of sentence would he get? Isn’t Ryder accused of stealing about six grand worth of stuff? I’m getting pretty tired of celebrities being treated like Royalty. A black woman gets caught with 50 grams of cocaine she’s holding for her boyfriend, and gets 20 years in the slammer because she has a prior conviction for pot possession when she was 16. In the meantime, Robert Downey Junior gets busted for felony possession how many times now? And how much time has he actually spent in jail? This special treatment of politicians, celebrities, and the wealthy has no place in a country supposedly made up of free citizens who are all peers. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/11 "2002-06-08T17:06:06Z")
Oh, and didn’t Downey also get busted on a federal weapons charge? How many felonies has he been convicted of? Why isn’t he serving the mandatory 20 under the three strikes law? ---
**Author:** ![Norrybaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9a28c/32.png) [@Norrybaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norrybaby)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/12 "2002-06-08T17:09:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I think having TV cameras and intrepid paparazzi at your arraignment Just on this point, the alledgedly broken elbow caught my attention. I could have sworn, that she clutched at her left elbow, claiming that’s where she was hit, and yet came back with the right elbow bandaged. No-one else in the media seems to be mentioning this that I can see. Anyone got any links on this, or do we just expect fraud from lawyers? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/13 "2002-06-08T18:13:52Z")
Didn’t Rebecca Gayheart kill a small boy when she was trying to move around an interesction or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/14 "2002-06-08T18:36:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > \*\*Oh, and didn’t Downey also get busted on a federal weapons charge? How many felonies has he been convicted of? Why isn’t he serving the mandatory 20 under the three strikes law? \*\* Said in VERY pretentious tone: “Because he is an _actor_, and because he’s **HOT.** ” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/15 "2002-06-08T19:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Didn’t Rebecca Gayheart kill a small boy when she was trying to move around an interesction or something like that? \*\* [Yep. Last year.](http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9162,00.html) And she got off damned easy. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/16 "2002-06-08T21:13:15Z")
I dunno, I realize how it rankles to have celebrities get “light treatment” but on the other hand, we sure as hell don’t need to put people like Winona and Dionne (and maybe not even Halle and Rebecca) in jail. While it might do them a world of good from the punishment perspective, we spend way too much money on incarceration as it is, and as prisons are overcrowded jails tend to fill up too. I don’t relish putting more public resources towards putting offenders like this in the slammer. I’d rather see their asses fined off, and lots of community service assigned. They’re still inconvenienced and punished, but more public good results. Or so I’d like to think. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/17 "2002-06-08T21:27:06Z")
> [@](#): > > I dunno, I realize how it rankles to have celebrities get “light treatment” but on the other hand, we sure as hell don’t need to put people like Winona and Dionne (and maybe not even Halle and Rebecca) in jail. People like them? How do I get to be “like” them so that when I break the law, I get the same kind of she-doesn’t-need-to-be-in-jail pass? Their shit don’t stop stinking just cuz they’re famous. Like the song says, if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/18 "2002-06-08T22:29:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DesertGeezer \* > \*\*Celebrities usually get a free pass. Witness Halle Berry with her hit and run. That’s a felony, but she got off. She told Diane Sawyer (or somebody…any Dopers who know please help) that she didn’t remember even having an accident, and then said she asked her then bouyfriend to take her back to the scene of the accident she didn’t remember having to see if anyone was still there. She should have gotten the Oscar right then. But jail time? NEVER. Celebrities don’t get the same treatment the rest of us would. :rolleyes: \*\* Not only did she get off, but people still like that asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Diff\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Diff\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diff_T)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/19 "2002-06-08T23:01:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > \*\* > > [Yep. Last year.](http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9162,00.html) And she got off damned easy. \*\* Wait, it didn’t say it was an intersection and the kid was jaywalking. I’m not saying she couldn’t have been more careful… (I didn’t witness the crash so I couldn’t say anything, maybe she was careful), but he ran out into the street STOPPING traffic. Maybe Gayheart didn’t piece together why they COULD be stopping, (I mean if a mistake like this were made outside of deadly vehicles, it would just be a mistake). I mean, people make mistakes, or don’t think about things because they never had learned to think about them, even in cars. She SHOULD pay, but to say she got off that easy, I don’t know. I would hate living with that. Being an actress, it can really mess up your career when people know you hit a kid and killed him. Now I don’t know, maybe there’s a lot here I’m not seeing, or read wrong… so please, for my education, tell me. I probibly did miss somthing. So don’t tell me in anger 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827/20 "2002-06-08T23:15:54Z")
She was in a hurry and didn’t want to wait. I don’t know about you, but when a row of cars stops in front of me, I stop. But then again, I’m not a celebrity. IIRC, she was also on a cell phone. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winona-ryders-defense/112827.md?page=2)