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SALT LAKE CITY — A former Salt Lake principal and California superintendent cried constantly when she was arrested for investigation of shoplifting, a police report states.
On Aug. 9, Sherianne Cotterell was arrested after police say she walked out of Dan's Foods, 1360 S. Foothill, with about $95 worth of merchandise in her purse that she didn't pay for. She also had other items with her that she did not purchase, according to a Salt Lake police report.
Cotterell is the former superintendent of the Rio School District in California. Prior to that she was also a former principal at Salt Lake's Lincoln Elementary School and was part of a three-person monitoring panel formed by the state to watch over the state's foster care system following the filing of a lawsuit by the National Center for Youth Law.
When the officer approached Cotterell in Dan's where she was being detained by store security, she was crying and acted as if she were hyperventilating, the report states. Cotterell said she didn't remember taking anything and must have "blacked out" in the store and didn't take anything on purpose. She had also had a grocery bag with some items she did buy.
"It appeared that Sherianne bought some items to hide the fact that she was stealing others," the officer wrote in his report. When the officer asked for her purse so he could look through it, he said Cotterell initially clutched it to her body and wouldn't hand it over.
An emotional Cotterell was checked by a nurse at the Salt Lake County Jail and was cleared to be admitted, the report states.
In 2009, Cotterell was arrested for investigation of shoplifting in California and was on probation when she was picked up in Salt Lake City. She was voted out as superintendent last year.
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