A San Francisco woman accused of breaking into the hotel room of "Jeopardy!'' host Alex Trebek is facing trial on charges of first-degree burglary and receiving stolen property.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Andrew Cheng ruled at the end of a preliminary hearing on Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence for 56-year-old Lucinda Moyers to stand trial on those
charges.
Authorities say Moyers broke into Trebek's room at a downtown San Francisco hotel on July 26 and stole a bracelet, purse and wallet with $661 in cash.
The Jeopardy host said he tore his Achilles tendon as he tried to chase Moyers down.
Moyers's attorney, Mark Jacobs, has said his client was a prostitute looking for a john and was not in Trebek's room. He said the bracelet and the $661 were not found on Moyers after she was searched.
At Moyers' hearing, a police officer who responded to the hotel that day said tissue was apparently somehow placed into the door jam of the hotel room to keep it ajar.
Officer Sean Frost said Trebek told him he was asleep with his wife Jean in a room on the 26th floor of the hotel when he awoke to see a dark silhouette of a person in the room.
After initially believing the person to be his wife, Trebek realized she was beside him in bed, then saw a flicker of light in the corner of the room near the doorway, Frost said.
After putting on some clothes, Trebek went into the hotel hallway where he saw a woman later identified as Moyers walking away, according to Frost.
Trebek followed Moyers and then confronted her, asking her what she was doing in his room and she said she was there visiting friends, Frost said.
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Trebek was eventually able to call hotel security, which apprehended Moyers downstairs. Police later found a purse belonging to Trebek's wife under an ice machine on the 26th floor, as well as Trebek's wallet under an ice machine on the 25th floor, Frost said.
She will return to court on Nov. 29 for formal arraignment on the charges, prosecutors said.
Moyers has been convicted four times of burglary -- in 1990, 1991 and twice in 1999 -- but prosecutors said this week they do not plan on trying the case under the state's three-strikes law, which would make her eligible for a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
