Woman faces judge in 1978 Pogue's shoplifting

Three decades after being charged in connection with the theft of leather jackets from a Cincinnati department store, a 61-year-old woman was finally brought before a Hamilton County judge.

The case, involving three leather jackets stolen in 1978 from the Downtown Pogue's, was dismissed this week by Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman, after prosecutors said it was unlikely they would be able to find witnesses.

Rochelle Jean Cooper was arrested this month in Indiana on a shoplifting charge, and someone noticed that a warrant for her arrest, issued in 1979, was still open. She was extradited last week to Hamilton County. She had been charged when she was 23 under a name records say is her alias, "Sandra Cooper."

The attorney originally appointed to the case, Pete Rosenwald, is still practicing and was re-appointed to represent her.

In an interview, Rosenwald said Cooper, who has a criminal record, had wondered why the open warrant "hadn't come up a long time ago."

A hearing was held Tuesday before Ruehlman, who signed an order dismissing the charge – which at the time it was issued was a felony punishable by prison time. Now, Rosenwald said, it would have been a misdemeanor.

A man who also was charged in the case, Charles Mumford, pleaded and was sentenced in 1979 to probation, records show.

It's not clear from court records whether the jackets, each valued at $300 in 1978, were recovered.