Warning "if you steal again, you will go to jail," a Los Angeles County judge on Friday sentenced film star Winona Ryder to three years' probation, mental health counseling and 480 hours of community service for shoplifting designer merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.
"You have disappointed many people inspired and entertained by your talents," Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox told the two-time Oscar nominee, who nodded sheepishly as he spoke sternly. "You have refused to accept personal responsibility."
Ryder, 31, also was ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines, including $6,355.40 to Saks for stolen and damaged goods from her infamous shopping trip last December.
The actress faced up to three years in state prison on her conviction last month on felony grand theft and vandalism charges.
During the acrimonious, one-hour sentencing hearing in a Beverly Hills courtroom, Ryder -- who starred in "Girl, Interrupted," "Little Women" and "The Age of Innocence" -- declined to make a statement.
She did, however, express herself with body language.
When a Saks supervisor, addressing the court as the victim of the crime, called her a "movie star thief," Ryder's brown eyes widened with a look of innocence.
And when Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Rundle accused Ryder and her attorney of "trot[ting] out the body of a dead child," Polly Klaas, to deflect from her criminal acts, Ryder jumped out of her seat, gasping as she glared at the prosecutor.
Rundle's remarks were directed to repeated court references to Ryder's work on behalf of the Polly Klaas Foundation, which deals with missing children such as the youngster who was kidnapped and murdered nine years ago in Petaluma, where Ryder once lived.
" ... That is just so outrageous, judge," Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos, said as he tried to comfort his glowering client.
Rundle snapped back: "I've had to listen to this for a year."
Geragos called the exchange inappropriate, citing it as one of many examples of how Ryder, who has no prior convictions, has been unfairly accused of committing "heinous acts."
"To try and tar and feather her, I think, is revolting," Geragos said before highlighting Ryder's "generous" monetary donations and volunteer time to good causes.
Besides helping the Klaas Foundation, he said, Ryder also has assisted college students on an Indian reservation.
In issuing his sentence Friday, Judge Fox ordered Ryder to volunteer at the City of Hope cancer center in Duarte, the Foundation for the Junior Blind, and Caring for Children and Families With AIDS.
The judge also ordered Ryder to undergo court-approved drug and psychological counseling programs.
According to a county probation report made public over Geragos' objection after Friday's sentencing, police discovered a hypodermic needle along with eight types of prescription drugs in Ryder's possession when she was booked at the Beverly Hills jail.
Officers said Ryder deceived them about the drugs in her purse. When they found a bottle marked Aleve, Ryder told police it was the nonprescription painkiller. Instead, the officer discovered 40 tablets of Vicoprofen and two Vicoden pills inside the bottle.
Ryder told county probation officers that she took those and other drugs to treat a herniated disk she suffered while rehearsing for a movie. Days before shopping at Saks, Ryder said, she also injured her arm when she fell off a skateboard.
Rundle said in court Friday that Ryder had "more pain medication in her purse than someone with a terminal disease."
According to the report, from January 1996 to December 1998, Ryder had 37 prescriptions filled by 30 doctors. She obtained the medications from a Rite-Aid drugstore on Sunset Boulevard as well as pharmacies in the San Fernando Valley.
The California Medical Board investigated one of the doctors who prescribed Ryder's medication and discovered that he had written several prescriptions to her under an alias, Emily Thompson, according to the probation report.
"If the defendant was under 'pain management guidance,' then the procedures that are recognized to effect pain were certainly not followed by this doctor," the report states. "Apparently, he was a popular doctor because he made house calls and hotel calls."
The state board revoked the doctor's license Friday.
The state and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told investigating officers for the probation report that the doctor had been "kicked out of South Africa for overmedicating people. He came to California and apparently is listed as a tattoo and hair removal doctor but at one time he was a licensed therapist. Apparently he is the doctor to many celebrity people."
In the report, a Beverly Hills police detective states that he believes Ryder has a drug problem. "We don't want to find her slumped over in a car with a needle in her arm," he said.
Ryder, however, told police that she has always been terrified of nonprescription drugs and had not used any, according to the report.
