EQUAL UNDER THE LAW?

EQUAL UNDER THE LAW?
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher

June 7, 2002

Actress Winona Ryder (AP) In a clear display of wisdom yesterday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden Fox showed that the law applies to all when he ordered that actress Winona Ryder (right) be held over for trial on charges of Burglary 2, grand theft, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance.

It seems that this troubled young lady was caught by a store security official (at Saks no less) who testified during a preliminary hearing that she saw the actress cutting security sensor tags off various items. A criminalist testified that two pills found in Ryder's possession were a generic form of Percocet, a prescription painkiller. The value of allegedly shoplifted items alone exceeds $5,000.

Now there have been a couple of times in my life where I have had to take Percocet myself, and I can tell you this much - it is indeed an industrial strength painkiller with a high potential for addiction. Having had a wonderful mother-in-law who was a nurse, I am well aware of its addiction potential - and having just come off major surgery at the time I was introduced to it 20 years ago, I was given only a ten-day supply of the drug. After six days, I flushed the remainder, deciding to rough it out rather than run the risk of getting hooked.

Now I don't know if it's just me, but there's something about Winona Ryder that I have never liked from the get-go. I have steadfastly refused to see any movie she's in, regardless how large or small the part has been or even if said part has been unbilled. Simply put, like Barbara Walters or Jude Law, I simply cannot stand her. If I see her mug on the screen, I will grab for the remote or fly across the room and either change the channel or pull the plug, and if I break a few bones in the process, so be it - that's how much I simply cannot handle Winona Ryder. If she has ever had any legitimate talent, it's lost on me.

In a vain and pathetic effort to deflect attention from the troubled history of his client as well as her probable guilt, Ryder's attorney Mark Geragos is grandstanding by accusing the District Attorney's office of suborning perjury.

Being a celebrity does have its perks for Ms. Ryder - or so it seems. Among those in the courtroom to lend emotional support was hometown native Mark Klaas. Klaas, a Petaluma, California native where Ryder is also from, is the father of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her home in 1993 and killed by a convicted kidnapper, who now awaits a not-soon-enough execution at San Quentin. Ryder had been active in the search efforts for Polly and helped in later efforts to reform the criminal justice system. Ryder embraced Klaas during a break and thanked him for coming. If Ryder ever needed friends, that time is going to be now.

With all these celebrities being arrested for one offense after another to include Murder 1 with Special Circumstances (such as O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake), the patience of the American public has reached a point that they are not asking, but demanding that justice be handed out equally with no special treatment for celebrities or other famous folks.

On the whole, we as a people are sick and tired of the "abuse excuse", the syndrome excuse and what Jack McCoy's character on Law & Order so accurately called "the Oprahfication of America", where people are always seeking to pass the buck to somebody else - as long as it doesn't stop with them. The time has long since come for people to take responsibility and be held accountable for their legal as well as their illegal and criminal actions - to be punished for their crimes with sentences commensurate with the offense, and for those sentences to be served in their entirety with no time off for good behavior, but rather, to have time added for bad behavior. Perhaps then and only then will we have a meaningful and effective judicial system in America.

Equal justice under the law - let's put some meaning back into those words and restore the blindfold back to Lady Justice in order that our faith in the system may not only once again be restored, but justified too.

It's an idea whose time has clearly come. ***

Photo of Timothy Rollins courtesy of staff files
Photo of actress Winona Ryder courtesy of the Associated Press
With files from the FOX News Channnel Web Site