Dartmouth French and Italian professor Vivian Kogan was acquitted on charges of shoplifting $65.90 worth of dietary supplements from the Lebanon Food Co-op, ending a three-month trial that has garnered a frenzy of media attention spanning from Canada to New Zealand.
Lebanon District Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod ruled on Wednesday that Kogan was not guilty of shoplifting, acquiting her of misdemeanor charges. MacLeod said that prosecutors failed to prove that Kogan had intended to steal the bottles.
"You have to know you were concealing the stuff, and she clearly didn't have the intent to do it," Kogan's lawyer Bill Clauson told the Valley News.
Kogan testified that while shopping, she pulled two bottles from the store-shelf, hoping they would help with her heart condition, but was unsure if she wanted to purchase them and so rested them atop her unzipped black purse.
At the time, Kogan was on medication that led to frequent loss of memory and difficulty concentrating, according to her court testimony.
"I was extremely cognitively challenged," she said in the Valley News.
Kogan testified that upon detecting she had a runny nose, she dropped the bottles into her purse when reaching for tissues. At that point, she zipped shut the bag with the bottles inside, an action that Lebanon police prosecutor Matthew Isham said implied Kogan intended to steal, according to the Associated Press.
As soon as Kogan exited the store, she was accosted by loss prevention officer Joshua Peabody, who had been watching her from three feet away. They returned to the store and the police were called.
The entire ordeal has had a tremendous impact on Kogan, whose most extensive previous encounter with the law had been receiving a speeding ticket.
"I don't know whether to be sarcastic, ironic or tragic about this but it has led me to really explore the notion of justice and injustice, the entire legal process and how it impacts our lives in ways that can be extraordinarily damaging," Kogan said. "This has been a very difficult time for me."
Kogan, who still retains her Co-op membership of over 30 years, said that she was "very disturbed" with the Co-op's handling of the incident.
"I have 86 shares in the Co-op," she said. "I think that it would have been in their interest and certainly in mine had they been a little more curious about the particular circumstances of the event."
General manager of the Co-op Terry Appleby said they were following typical store policy.
"If we picked and chose who we decided were innocent and guilty, that would be an insult to the community," Appleby said. "That's not our role. Our role is simply to protect the assets of the store. We certainly will discuss internally how we handle issues where there appears to be concealment of product."
Appleby added there will be no change of store shoplifting policy.
Kogan said that the extensive publicity she received has impacted both personal and professional areas of her life. The College recommended she take a leave term after she was charged with shoplifting, according to Kogan. While she received no comments from her students, her colleagues sent her many "heartwarming" letters of support.
"This has been very unhappy for me," Kogan said. "The initial publicity was very damaging. I felt there was a frenzy to exploit this. This should not have been leaked to the WMUR9 and none of the cases that were parallel to this one received this kind of media attention."
According to Kogan, both the Co-op and the Lebanon police department deny leaking the story to the media.
The Co-op currently holds a trespass court order against Kogan.
