Date: 27th August 2010

Woman on trial over DiCaprio wounds


A US judge ordered a woman to stand trial on a charge of slashing Leonardo DiCaprio's face with glass during a 2005 party.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edmund Willcox Clarke ordered Aretha Wilson to face one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

The charge includes an allegation that Wilson, 40, caused great bodily injury.

Wilson was returned to Los Angeles in the five-year-old case.

She pleaded not guilty and remains jailed in lieu of 150,000 US dollars bail.

Wilson's lawyer Freddy Sayegh said the ruling was not unexpected and that Wilson vehemently professed her innocence. He expected the trial to begin within 60 days. She is due back in court on September 9.

Authorities said Wilson attacked Leonardo with a broken beer bottle, but a witness said it was a wine glass. The criminal complaint identifies the object only as glass.

If convicted, Wilson faces up to seven years in state prison.

The details and extent of the Hollywood actor's injuries were not made public, although the judge, who reviewed photos of the injuries to the star's ear and neck, said that "this would not be an injury that would be called trivial or moderate, in my view".

Those photos also were not made public.

Leonardo did not attend the hearing.

Source: Press Release