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Serious Injury Attorneys
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
By Julia Lawlor and Tom Cooney,
Daily News Staff Writers
A Mayfair woman wrongly accused of shoplifting a $1.49 bottle of paprika from an Acme supermarket was awarded $250,000 by a jury this week for "severe emotional distress" resulting from the incident.
The verdict for Sadet "Sandy" Meroli, 32 came Wednesday, after an eight-day trial before Common Pleas Judge Michael Wallace. An Acme employee had accused Meroli of shoplifting after she saw her pick up two bottles of paprika from a shelf and replace only one.
Meroli at first kept the other bottle, but later changed her mind and placed it on another shelf filled with boxes of cookies.
Meroli's attorneys, GERALD JAY POMERANTZ and ELIOT HILLEL LEWIS, charged Acme Markets with false imprisonment and assault and battery in the incident, which occurred six years ago.
Meroli, a native of Yugoslavia, suffered anxiety attacks, depression and severe head aches that left her to seek psychiatric help. POMERANTZ said, and she has not been able to work outside her home since the incident. Because of her strict Muslim upbringing that regards stealing as a very serious offense she was doubly humiliated.
During the trial, Philip Ryan, an attorney for Acme Markets, denied the charges. He said employees had probable cause to accuse Meroli of shoplifting, and argued they had difficulty understanding her explanations because of her poor English.
POMERANTZ gave this account:
Meroli had walked to the Acme store on Roosevelt Boulevard, between Magee and Harbison Avenues, in the Northeast, on the morning of May 3, 1978 to buy some lamb. When she was told she would have to wait a few minutes until the meat was ready, she began walking up and down the aisles, placing items in her shopping cart.
Meroli picked up two bottles of paprika, an ingredient frequently used in Yugoslavian cooking, and immediately put one bottle back on the shelf, later placed the other bottle on a shelf full of cookies.
After paying for the lamb and other items, Meroli was stopped by the store's assistant manager and asked where she had put the paprika.
When she told him she had left it in the store and offered to show him her cash register receipt, the assistant manager asked her to come with him to the store's bakery room.
She protested and opened her purse to show him she had not stolen anything, but he grabbed her arm and led her to the room and closed the door. There, a female employee conducted a body search shouting angrily at Meroli and finally opening all the buttons of her blouse, exposing her chest while the male assistant manager was still in the room.
Meroli finally took the female employee to the shelf where she had placed the second bottle of paprika, showed her the bottle and was allowed to leave the store.
Neither the female employee nor the assistant manager apologized.
On the way home Meroli began to suffer emotionally from the incident.
Meroli walked home "in a daze" and then collapsed.
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