Charges dropped in alleged Oscar theft
LOS ANGELES— Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped the case against a man charged with stealing Frances McDormand’s Oscar statuette from a 2018 Academy Awards after-party.
Terry Bryant’s felony grand theft trial was to begin Tuesday, but Los Angeles prosecutors said in court that they were unable to proceed with the case against the 58-year-old. Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta then granted a defence motion to dismiss it.
The district attorney’s office gave no explanation for the decision, and Bryant’s attorney wasn’t immediately available for comment. McDormand won the award for best actress in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri on March 4, 2018, and lost the statuette after having it engraved at the Governors Ball, the official Academy Awards after-party, held in the same Hollywood complex as the Dolby Theatre where the show takes place.
Video shows Bryant, wearing atuxedo, leaving the party holding an Oscar and saying, “We did it! We did it.”
A film academy worker who was escorting a photographer at the party testified at a preliminary hearing last year that he heard over a walkie-talkie that McDormand’s Oscar was missing, and he spotted Bryant, and recovered the statuette.
It was returned to McDormand, who could be seen holding it at the Vanity Fair postOscar party hours later.
Bryant’s attorney, Daniel Brookman, argued in court last year that Bryant didn’t try to hide that he had McDormand’s Oscar, and the charge should be dismissed.